Changing fate
by Hermionechan90
Summary: Marianne Abbott, or was it Kenneth? Anyway, this is the story how she rendered Sybill Trelaweny's prophecy obsolete and along the way introduced ipods to the Wizarding world. AU, OC, Marauder-verse, now Beta'd by the awesome SeasonsInReverse
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

…_and Sirius squeezed her hand before they joined the train for their last ride home. Yes, she was ready, the life after Hogwarts could come; after all, she wasn't alone._

_The End_

Slightly sniffing, Marianne searched for a tissue. That last story had been absolutely spell-binding - she had even cried during a few scenes. She saved the Harry Potter story as one of her favorites before she went back to her fanfiction account to see if anything had been updated. Incidentally, her gaze landed on the computer clock and she groaned. 1:30 am. _When had it become that late?_ She wondered. Damn, and tomorrow she had P.E. with her class of third years! Mournfully, she looked at the screen. With surprise, she saw the time travel Naruto story she was following had been updated. _Hmm, oh well_, she thought, _I'll read just that chapter and then go to bed, honest!_

She finally went to bed 10 minutes to 2 am. This was not good, she would have to wake up at 6:30 am and that left her just 4 ½ hours to catch some sleep before her little nine year old hellions would suck the life out of her.

She loved her kids, really, and they were more or less angels inside the classroom, but 25 energetic 9 year olds. Only three 10 minute breaks and an hour lunch time were a recipe for mischief and mayhem.

Marianne Kenneth was a 24 year old avid fanfiction reader and Primary school teacher living in London. She had long brownish hair, light blue eyes covered by reading glasses; she was neither very pretty nor butt ugly. Overall, she was nothing special, just a regular young woman living her life in central London.

Okay, maybe not so regular because she had this awesome loft apartment right in the middle of London, a property hundreds of girls would kill for. And she lived right above an old lady she would shop for twice a week and who Marianne would pay 60% of her income to live in this dream-come-true apartment. But nevertheless, everything else about her was average. Average height, weight, hair, eyes - even her grades had been average in both school and college! So yeah, her life was pretty average.

The only thing other than her apartment that was not average was her social life; that was below average, even abysmal. Marianne was well liked by her co-workers, sure, and she would occasionally join them for a drink, but she had neither close friends nor family that would make up for her lack of contact.  
It wasn't because they were dead or lived somewhere on the other side of the planet and couldn't visit her, it was simply because her parents didn't show any real interest in their daughter, and the friendships she had in school and college just fell apart through the lack of contact.

To be honest Marianne had never really missed this social contact; she was perfectly fine to sit in her apartment and read on her computer, listen to music or watch a movie; all things that you could do alone.  
It was the same with her love life; she never really fell in love. Oh, sure she had some lovers and went infrequently on dates, but that was it and, just like the social contact, she didn't miss it.

Another reason for her lack of social life was her tendency to blush and just stay quiet. She wasn't one to draw attention to herself - she liked to stay in the background and observe. It was even a wonder that she became a teacher, and the only reason why she even considered it was because her love for children outweighed her shyness.

As predicted, the following afternoon after Marianne let her students go at 3 p.m. she was completely exhausted and ready to call it a day. She did exactly that, after buying groceries for both her and Mrs Audrey. She fell asleep at 8:45 pm in front of her TV on the first Tuesday of October 2012.

When she woke up she was somewhere completely different.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The moment she woke up, Marianne knew something was strange. She didn't open her eyes, but furrowed her eyebrows while she thought about the reason she was confused. The last memory she had of the day before was the intro of the CSI: Miami series, and consequently she should have woken up with back pain and cold feet, because that was what always happened when she slept on the couch.  
Instead, she woke up feeling warm and nestled inside thick blankets.

When she finally opened her eyes she nearly had a heart attack - she was lying in a four-poster bed with light blue ceiling. _What the hell?!_  
In one movement, she sat up in the queen sized bed. Where the hell was she and what had happened the night before?

Suddenly, a crack sounded through the room. Marianne nearly fell out of the bed and only grabbing the right poster at the last minute prevented the fall. Anxiously, she looked around the room to find the origin of the sound.

"Young Mistress is awake! Is Mistress wanting Trilly to make breakfast?"

Marianne had no idea what was happening, where she was, or how she got there, so she did what she normally did - she played it by ear.

She cleared her throat and said, "Yes please, but could I have it here? I don't feel too well today."

"Oh no! Should Trilly call the healer? Is Mistress needing anything? Oh, of course! Mistress is needing breakfast! Bad Trilly!" The house elf admonished herself.

"Eh, no, I don't think I need a healer, I will just rest today." Marianne rushed to reassure.

"As young Mistress wishes!" and with a plop, the house elf was gone.

Leaning back Marianne took a deep breath. She had no idea how, but she was in some weird Harry Potter fantasy. She would wake up in the next morning and would laugh about her imagination. _Oh well, since I'm here I'll just enjoy this_ she thought, and with a grin she laid back and relaxed while waiting for Trilly to bring her breakfast.

While she looked around in her room her gaze fell on a book on her bedside table. Grinning, she picked it up and opened it. It was a potions text, and while she leafed through it her brain felt strange - as if she knew the information already. When she caught herself thinking about the potions essay that she would have to write for her summer homework, she grew suspicious; were dreams always this elaborate?

Her musings were interrupted when Trilly brought a full continental breakfast, with a side of eggs and bacon. Hungrily, she ate the delicious meal. _Okay_, she thought, this had to be a dream - after all, she had never tasted anything this delicious. The dishes vanished the minute she was done. Just like every morning.  
_Wait, just like every morning?_ Marianne thought, confused. _Okay what's my name? Marianne. How old am I? 24, 14… Huh? What am I? Primary school teacher; Witch, Hogwarts student…  
My imagination must be stronger than I thought,_ she mused, _but really it's understandable my mind made my dream-self younger - after all, a 24 year old couldn't go to Hogwarts!_ Reassured, Marianne thought about her family and Hogwarts dorm. She had an older brother by four years, a father, and she was a Hufflepuff. Amused, Marianne got out of bed to explore a little bit.  
After summoning Trilly and asking after Michael, her brother, and Thomas, her father, she was informed they were at a friend's place and work respectively.

Leisurely, Marianne strolled through the house as more and more dream memories hit her. Her imagination really had outdone itself this time - everything was so detailed, right down to her preferences and school grades!

As the day went by things just got weirder and weirder. She remembered her childhood in these halls and how it got lonely after her mother died when she was 9 years old. _Strange._ The character traits were pretty much the same; both Mariannes were shy and socially awkward, had a good but distant relationship to their co-workers/fellow students. But while the older Marianne was sure about her parents disinterest, this witch's father loved her - he just didn't know what to do with a girl, and so she had been mostly raised by the house elves, who adored her, while her father concentrated more on the outgoing son that would become family head after him.

Also, there was her body; she wasn't sure what to think about it. She had larger breasts, but she also had belly rolls, and not the cute kind that someone could coo over. No, she had about 15 to 20 pounds more than what was healthy. Her face was slightly pudgy, and instead of brownish hair she had blonde. _Weird._  
After dinner that went by similarly to the ones in her fantasy's memories, Marianne went to bed convinced that she would wake up back home on her couch with backache and cold feet.

However, that never happened. She woke up again and again and again, until she had to admit defeat. _Why aren't I waking up? And why does everything feel so real?_ Marianne wasn't sure how to deal with the situation, it couldn't be real! She couldn't have landed in the Harry Potter world!  
Marianne was so lost in her own thoughts, she missed the next step on the stairs and tumbled down the stair case. She was dizzy when she heard somebody shout in surprise.

Suddenly, Michael was brought into her focus and, vision slightly blurry, Marianne whined out a pitiful, 'Ow.' Michael cautiously reached out and lifted her into his arms, in spite of her extra weight.  
The next thing she realized she was in a white room, somebody was holding a wand to her head and it stung. Surprised, she cried out. Michael was at her side in an instant, and finally her vision was not so blurry anymore.

"Are you okay Marianne?" He asked, worriedly.

"Head hurts" she replied.

"No wonder, you tumbled down the stairs and have a strong concussion! I have reversed most effects but you will have a splitting headache for another hour before you can take this potion and please rest and don't do anything for the rest of the day!" The grey haired wizard told her.

On the other side her father was hovering and sending her worried looks.  
After answering all of his questions the healer discharged her. After thanking the healer, Marianne was escorted back home by her brother, and her father gave her a cautious hug so as to not jostle her head too much. Michael hovered for the rest of the day at her side and even kissed her forehead when he left her to sleep.

Shortly before she fell asleep Marianne came to the final decision that her situation was quite real and she could really get hurt or killed if she did something stupid.  
She spent a long time contemplating about her situation and came than to the conclusion that she didn't feel the need to go back to her old non-magical life; nobody really was waiting for her, and while her parents would perhaps be a bit sad, they would continue on with their lives. This was the dream of every Harry Potter fan come true - to be part of the universe and experience it for oneself and, if she was perfectly honest, that loving family thing was really nice too.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The next day Marianne took, for the first time, real notice of her surroundings - where she was, how she looked, what summer homework she had to do, etcetera.

The Abbotts lived in magical London, two streets down from the Leaky Cauldron. They also had an estate in Essex but lived in London because of her father's occupation. Her father, Thomas Abbott, was a Potions Master who worked for St. Mungos, and was a very skilled one at that. Her mother, Zara Abott nee Miller, who had been a Muggleborn, died when Marianne was 9 years old during a brewing accident; she had been one of the foremost potion researchers at St. Mungos.

The first thing that really surprised Marianne was, funnily enough, the Daily Prophet; to be exact, the date of the Daily Prophet. At first she had thought she had landed in the book time frame, but instead it was the 16th July 1976. She had landed in the 'Marauder era', as most fanfic addicts called the timeframe between 1971 and 1978.

_So, James and co should be 16 at the moment_, Marianne thought. She couldn't help but let her thoughts wander to the many delicious fanarts of the Marauders she had found on the internet, and blushed; she was quite excited about meeting them and comparing them to their book selves.

Reprimanding herself, Marianne tried to recall everything she knew about the Harry Potter timeline. To help herself she wrote it down, plus all the information about the individual characters. During the writing she noticed that the memories of the other Marianne came forth when she concentrated on a specific known person like James Potter.  
The older Marianne noted James Potter was born in 1960, is Harry's father, the Quidditch captain, in love with Lily Evans, he wears glasses, has brown hair, brown eyes, is one of the Marauders and an Animagus, likes pranks, and is part of the Order.  
Then, the younger Marianne added that James Charlus Potter likes Yorkshire Pudding, abhors red currants, plays chaser for Gryffindor, is a Transfiguration prodigy, every year he and Sirius build a snow castle, he could have 10 girls on every finger but always rejects them, he has a soft spot for first years, and keeps Sirius in check from going overboard in his pranks on the younger years.

_Well, how interesting! This could actually work!_ Marianne thought happily. In a good mood she joined Michael for lunch in the winter garden before continuing with her work. In the evening she had filled an entire notebook with information about the people in the Wizarding world.

Marianne next spoke with Trilly, her personal House-Elf, about changing her diet to help her lose weight. At first Trilly was in tears, but eventually agreed to the adjustments.

After paying close attention to herself for the day, Marianne had come to the conclusion that both the Witch and the Muggle had merged, with the older Marianne being the dominate personality while the Witch was more subconscious; she was responsible for the blushing and the slight stutter, as well as her diminutive body language.

Marianne took great care to remember the finer details of the life of the Witch. Her father and her older brother had always been very busy and normally didn't really take notice of Marianne.  
After her mother's death she mostly had been raised as a Pureblood by the House Elves. Although her mother had been a Muggleborn, Marianne hadn't had any real knowledge of the Muggle world until now.

Michael was eighteen, a former Ravenclaw, and had just graduated the week before. He would be starting his career in the ministry on the second of August in the department of International magical cooperation.  
Thanks to his status as Abbott, a known and wealthy Wizarding family that had been working for generations in the Ministry, Michael hadn't had any problems because of his Halfblood status. From what she had heard others weren't so lucky, since the regime of Voldemort had started a lot of restrictive rules and laws had been passed.

The thought of Voldemort made Marianne uneasy; the Wizarding world would suffer strongly under him and his followers - a lot of innocent people would die. However, she wasn't sure if she should attempt to change anything as it was unknown if those changes would turn the fate of the Wizarding world for the better or worse.

Of one thing she was sure, though; even if she didn't think that Dumbledore was evil and had fun manipulating people, she was still very aware of the fact that he wasn't infallible the way most wizards liked to think, and so she would not, under any circumstances, tell him about her knowledge. He would just keep the information to himself and do nothing, or very little.

Shaking herself from her dark thoughts, she concentrated on her current situation. As a Pureblood raised Witch she wasn't expected to know anything about the Muggle world, and should she let something slip people would get suspicious. Therefore, she would have to find a way to explain her outside knowledge away.

In the evening after dinner, she asked her father about exploring Muggle London during the day. Thomas Abbott had been very bewildered about this question, but in the end he caved. He had cautioned Marianne about the more dangerous places in London, and told her that he felt uncomfortable with letting her go. Her curfew had also been moved up to five pm.  
He gave her 100 pounds as spending money and promised to convert more on the next day.  
Marianne had thanked him and given him a hug for it; she was sure that he had no idea how much money he had given her. From what she could remember from her history and business lessons, because of the inflation a 100 pounds were nearly twice as much worth in 1975 than in 2012.

The next day Marianne wore the clothes that were the most suited for moving in the Non-Magical world. Her brother escorted her to the entrance, and asked her one last time if she really wanted to do this. At her affirmative, he gave her a Muggle London map to help her navigate her way around.  
The first 2 hours she spent familiarizing herself with her environment; during the last 40 years a lot had changed in her home city. After that she visited different book stores and picked up various books on technology and history of the Muggle world, so that she could explain her sudden knowledge away.

Shortly before her curfew she found a music store close to the entrance of the Wizarding world. Seeing a guitar in the window, she had a sudden the urge to buy it. Elder Marianne had always loved to play, but since she finished college and started working she had little to no opportunity to use it; most of the time she had just used the radio or CD player when she sang with her kids.

Arriving home, Marianne excitedly told her family about her day, describing her activities and the different machines she had seen. Marianne had to concentrate not to let too much slip, but somehow managed. Her brother and father simply gave her indulgent gazes and small smiles before they turned to the newest Potion discoveries.

Interestingly, Marianne had found that she not only had the talent and knowledge of already existing potions, but also had new ideas popping up in her head for experiments. Until now, the Witch had been too shy to voice them but slowly and steadily, with the positive encouragement of her father and brother, the new Marianne gave her opinion to the different topics.

The next day, she bought herself the guitar that she had seen in the window of the music store as well as a song book with easy to middle hard songs; she was determined to refresh her memory of playing now that she was a teenager once again.

It was a bit daunting; Marianne had, at first, despaired about this fact - to be a teenager again with all the wild mood swings and social interactions that had scared her more than a bit the first time, and now she was in an even more precarious position as a Witch with a brewing civil war on the horizon.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

During the rest of the holidays Marianne had a strict food and exercise schedule. She had never been good at sports, but regular and extended walks through the city brought slow but steady results.

She also practiced playing her guitar; her fingers had been completely unused to the different finger movements, but it became a sort of release for her. She even remembered a lot of the songs she had learned during her education and wrote the notes down for them.

Marianne still couldn't fully wrap her mind around the fact that she was now a resident in the Harry Potter universe - maybe even for forever.

She slowly and steadily integrated herself into Marianne Abbott's life, and started to change the way her family saw her. To them, it looked like the youngest member of the family was finally coming out of her shell and starting to gain more confidence.

The Muggle part in Marianne was endlessly excited about being a Witch, and so she studied a lot of the material the witch had learned over the 4 years prior. This had the positive effect of repeating and cementing the knowledge.  
Runes especially fascinated Marianne, it was like a secret language that only a handful of people understood; it also helped that it was one of the Witch's favourite subjects at Hogwarts.

She also continued her visits to the Muggle world; she enjoyed window shopping and had purchased some clothes so that she would fit right in with the Muggles. Secretly, she hoped that her father would allow her to visit a dance school the next summer so that she could learn the more relaxed Muggle dances additional to the standard Wizard choices.  
The Muggle in her regretted never learning the skill now that she knew how much fun dancing could be from her Witch side.

At the end of the summer Marianne had lost a lot of her extra weight, bringer her to a more healthy size and state. She would never be rail thin like a supermodel, but that didn't bother her overly much. She happily celebrated her accomplishment with shopping at Twillfit and Tatting's, a Wizarding clothes shop for the more wealthy families. There, she bought herself new underwear, as well as some nice robes, skirts and dresses.

As much as she would love to wear jeans and t-shirts, the Wizarding world was very conservative concerning clothes, and at least 20 years behind Muggles in fashion. Marianne was only glad that her other self, who she had inherited a lot of qualities from, was quite comfortable in this style and so she had no problems with the clothes.  
She then visited Madame Malkin's to get her school uniform adjusted.

At Madame Malkin's Marianne had a run in with one of her fellow Hufflepuffs.  
Katherine 'Kate' Macmillan had not recognized her at first, but after she had Kate complimented her for the loss of weight and the two ended up talking about their holidays while they made their way through Diagon Ally.  
The blonde witch had always been nice to Marianne, even when they hadn't been close friends. During their conversation about the holidays, Marianne learned her fellow Hufflepuff had spent them with her family in Sweden with relatives there.

The two finally split up in front of Flourish and Blott's where Kate's brothers waited for her. Marianne spend the rest of the day window shopping and picking up small gadgets before she made her way back to the Leaky Cauldron where her brother promised to pick her up, after which they would have dinner with their father in one of the more expensive restaurants to celebrate the end of the summer.

Only a few meters away from the entrance to the Leaky cauldron Marianne recognized James Potter and Sirius Black. The two Marauders were laughing and joking, and behind them the elder Potters shook their heads indulgently while they made their way down the street.  
Marianne came to a stop in front of a knick knack shop and acted as if she was interested in something in the shop window. Her hair had fallen in front of her face like a curtain and so prevented the two Gryffindors from seeing her red cheeks and shy glances. Inside, the Muggle Marianne was squealing and jumping around - she had finally encountered the infamous Marauders!

After Prongs and Padfoot had passed her, Marianne made her way to meet her father and brother. She still had a sight blush and dazed gaze when she came to a stop in front of Michael. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have noticed her state. Her father met them only five minutes later, and they had their nice promised lunch at the Gypsy, an upper class café house.

The next day, Michael brought her to the train station while their father was having his shift in St. Mungos. After a quick hug and goodbye, the newly 14 year old dimension traveller sat on the Hogwarts express going to the direction of Scotland.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: A Sirius encounter of the other kind**

During the train ride Marianne met Kate again and the two sat with another group of Hufflepuffs in one compartment. The group chatted about the holidays and the newest gadgets before playing some rounds of exploding snap.  
The game had been invented only four years prior and was a giant hit with the Hogwarts population.  
All in all it was a fun and cheerful train ride.

Arriving at the train station and climbing into the carriage Marianne was giddy with excitement. She was going to HOGWARTS!

The drive up to the castle was relatively quick but Marianne was mostly silent, the view out of the window had left her speechless while the carriage made it's way up the winded path.  
Hogwarts was absolutely breath taking and awe inspiring!

Still slightly stunned Marianne relied on Kate to lead her through the double door entrance to the Great Hall and to their place at the Hufflepuff table.

Marianne was only shaken out of her trance like state when Kate asked her concerned if everything was alright, she had been silent since climbing into the carriage.  
A quick smile sent into the blondes' direction and a misleading sentence about a headache and being tired had rectified the situation.  
The rest of the evening Marianne enjoyed the feast and the cheerful chatter around her, first in the Great Hall and than in the common room and the dorm room, Hufflepuff was really the most welcoming house of all of them.  
Marianne fell asleep relatively quick and had weird dreams about dogs, red eyed snakes and potion cauldrons.

The next few days turned into a blur of finding her way around the castle and exploring a bit. Marianne especially enjoyed the Hogwarts grounds and found a somewhat hidden spot at the Black Lake.

She started a habit to take her guitar down there and practice a bit while she replayed classes and gossip in her head, Hufflepuff gossip queens had a habit of sitting in hearing range of her when she did her homework in the common room.  
The curriculum was very exciting to her and thankfully she hadn't had any problems with the practical part, but to be sure Marianne tried to get in as much spell casting as possible after the lessons in abandoned classrooms.

And so it came that Marianne sat again in her favorite spot when she was surprised by the most unlikely Gryffindor.

Marianne jerked and squeaked when Sirius Black suddenly sat down beside her, she hadn't heard anybody coming, and expected even less Sirius Black. She had been lost in her music and only concentrated on her guitar play.  
Marianne had needed something to calm her down after the encounter with the Slytherins today and so she just played random songs that had a calming effect on her when she still had been a muggle.

Taking in his relaxed form Marianne couldn't decide if she should swoon and blush or be wary of him. Damn the young Marianne's feelings and hormones, of course her counterpart had to have a crush as big as the Grand Canyon on Hogwarts resident play boy. But oh, nobody could deny that Sirius had the bad boy image down to a T. Especially now that he had run away from his home and lived with the Potters.

"Hey" grinned Sirius charmingly as he leaned back in the warm grass, upper body propped up on his elbows.

"…Hi…" Marianne whispered shyly back while she stared down on her guitar.

Merlin be damned, she was 24 years old, but still so awkward with men and those raging hormones didn't help one bit.

"Can you continue playing? I liked the last piece. I'm Sirius Black by the way."

"Oh, eh yeah, uhhm I'm Marianne Abbott,… that song is called Lullaby for a stormy night", inside Marianne kicked herself while she stumbled over her words.

"Does it have a lyric?"

"Uhm yes, but I'm not that good at singing."

"Oh come on you can't be that bad! I won't laugh."

'Oh god you have NO idea' Marianne grumbled to herself, but she couldn't say no to this charming grin, even if it meant she had to utterly embarrass herself.

_song by Vienna Teng_

little child, be not afraid  
though rain pounds harshly against the glass  
like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger  
I am here tonight

little child, be not afraid  
though thunder explodes and lightning flash  
illuminates your tear-stained face  
I am here tonight

and someday you'll know  
that nature is so  
the same rain that draws you near me  
falls on rivers and land  
on forests and sand  
makes the beautiful world that you'll see  
in the morning

little child, be not afraid  
though storm clouds mask your beloved moon  
and its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams  
I am here tonight

little child, be not afraid  
though wind makes creatures of our trees  
and their branches to hands, they're not real, understand  
and I am here tonight

for you know, once even I was a  
little child, and I was afraid  
but a gentle someone always came  
to dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears  
and to give a kiss goodnight

well now I am grown  
and these years have shown  
that rain's a part of how life goes  
but it's dark and it's late  
so I'll hold you and wait  
'til your frightened eyes do close

and I hope that you'll know...

everything's fine in the morning  
the rain'll be gone in the morning  
but I'll still be here in the morning

Marianne couldn't believe it, her old body may have not been able to carry a tune, but this one could definitely sing, and that pretty well; unbelievable!

She cautiously glanced at Sirius who was lying beside her, his liquid dark silver eyes were holding her grey blue ones captive and then snorted.

"Can't sing, my ass, you're really good!"

Blushing Marianne looked away, that couldn't be happening that was a sixteen year old boy and not a man beside her and she felt like swooning and squealing.  
Okay, he was really close to be a man she conceded but still.

"Thank you, but I'm really not that good, and normally I never sing."

After some convincing and flattering from Sirius' side she played for the rest of the time until curfew, while Sirius sat beside her and was listening while he relaxed with closed eyes and enjoyed it.  
Dare Marianne say that Sirius looked peaceful?

After an awkward goodbye from her side, Marianne practically ran into the Hufflepuff dormitories, Merlin and Morgana how embarrassing. Black would surely laugh about her shyness.

While sitting in the Gryffindor common room Sirius thought back on this evening.  
He was confused how had that little Hufflepuff girl managed to intrigue him that much that he had changed his plans? Normally when he was set on a girl becoming his next conquest, nothing could dissuade him from his goal, but that little slip of a girl had somehow done it.

That warm Friday evening would have been perfect to make a move on the little Abbott, but the music that waved from her spot at the Black Lake had somehow stopped him.  
Her playing on the guitar made her suddenly a lot more interesting than his other dates. So he took a step back and just observed.

She was kind of cute in a shy and girl next door way. Not his normal type, most of the time he went for the stunning, curvy and outgoing girls. But this girl had something that he couldn't quite put into words.

She squeaked when he approached her, that was kind of funny and she also turned beet red when he had sat down. Sirius grinned to himself and wasn't that an ego boost? Lying his head onto the back of the couch he thought about the shy blonde girl.

She was so vulnerable and innocent; it had been so easy to convince her to sing, even though she was clearly uncomfortable about it. Although he didn't understand why, she had a soothing voice, very clear; it made the whole experience even more enjoyable he hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time.

Funnily enough, now that he had talked to her and had time to watch her in depth, her voice and her hands were the most attractive to him. Her hands were just so small and dainty, while before he had been attracted to her, for her age generous, breasts and hips.

Sirius looked up as James interrupted his musings with a quick yell across the common room, with a small sigh he stood up and made his way over to his friends. Sitting down between Remus and James, Sirius decided that at the moment Marianne Abbott was too interesting to just serve as a relief for his sexual frustration. The little blonde didn't know it yet but she would see a lot more of him in the near future.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

The following weekend whenever her time allowed it, Marianne sat near the Black Lake and played, she had begun to take it for granted that Sirius joined her shortly after she had sat herself down. He normally didn't say anything, which was quite untypical for the outgoing Gryffindor as far as the blonde girl new but Marianne tried not to read too much into his actions and just enjoyed their strange encounters. Their meetings had a strangely soothing quality to both of them.

To compensate for his silence she babbled between her songs, be it about the reason why she was playing here, she didn't want to disturb her fellow Hufflepuffs in the common room, or about her subjects and the professors. At their last meeting Marianne had made her distress known about how Slughorn treated her overly familiar.  
As a result the good professor had found himself pranked at the breakfast table the day after Sirius' and Marianne's meeting.  
The blonde witch couldn't stop the smile that had fixated itself on her face for the rest of the day. She had also taken note of the self satisfied look of the oldest Black son when he watched her during breakfast.

The Monday after the Slughorn incident their luck with the weather disappeared abruptly, with the beginning of the new week it started raining cats and dogs and the temperature dropped rapidly; autumn had finally arrived at Hogwarts.

Sirius didn't show it openly but he was sulking, the bad weather had taken away any chances of listening to his Hufflepuff girl at the Black Lake. He had secretly absolutely adored it when she had played and was amused about her babblings between the songs until she had decided what to play next.  
That Slughorn made her uncomfortable had infuriated him so much that he had convinced his fellow Marauder's to take some revenge for her. Of course he hadn't breathed a word about the fact that he was doing this for a girl, he would never hear the end of it if he did.

But back to his foul mood, most of his fellow Gryffindors attributed it to the weather change, but a few exceptions like James and Remus knew better and watched him concerned. They were aware that bad weather normally didn't provoke such a drastic mood change in him.

His bad mood continued and got worse instead of lighting, his contributions to pranks got down right vicious until a few days later he saw Marianne again.  
She was playing her guitar in one of the abandoned classrooms near the library when Sirius passed. Instead of checking a few facts for their next prank he kept her company until shortly before lunch.

The following day when he revisited the classroom in hopes of seeing her again, he found instead that the chairs and tables had been pelted with chalk and other small objects. It looked like Peeves had found Marianne's hiding place.  
Frustrated and swearing vengeance against the poltergeist Sirius left in direction of the Gryffindor common room.

When Wednesday came around the Black had finally found a solution. Determined to keep the intriguing Hufflepuff close, Sirius started to search for a permanent room in which they could meet up. After running around the whole day like a madman, he finally found what he was looking for shortly before dinner.

On the second floor, halfway between both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff dormitories was a deserted hallway with empty classrooms. One of those classrooms had adjourning private quarters.  
Sirius knew he had hit the jackpot with the private quarters, it was close to both common rooms, slightly out of the way and protected through an empty and dusty classroom.  
With a few well placed privacy charms nobody would give the closed door beside the blackboard a second glance without precisely knowing what was behind it.

The private quarters consisted of a sitting room, a bathroom and two other rooms, both rooms with windows to the Black Lake.  
With a few quick household charms from the arsenal that his dear mother had drilled into his head since he could walk, Sirius had removed the dust and stood now inside the living quarters room, unsure how to proceed.

With a careless shrug of his shoulders he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room, he would show the rooms to Marianne tomorrow and then decide what to do. Being slightly obvious Sirius didn't pick up on the fact that this could be easily perceived as him creating a nest for his lover.

On the next day the black haired Gryffindor impatiently waited until classes were over and then grabbed Marianne after lunch. Said Hufflepuff had been on her way to the library when she had been more or less kidnapped by the older boy.  
Without another word Sirius led her away from the more populated corridors of Hogwarts, into the second floor and then into the empty quarters.

Catching her breath Marianne finally found air to speak, her head still spun from the surprise attack the Gryffindor had sprung on her. She did not even have time to ask questions about where he led her until they had arrived in, what looked like, a recently cleaned but empty room.  
Wide eyed and slightly confused she turned to a beaming Sirius who watched her take her surroundings in.

"Do you like it? You can play here as much as you want, and don't have to fear about disrupting anything, plus I can listen to you again without putting the Hufflepuff common room into a panic."

The last part was said decidedly smug while he watched her face. Ugh yeah she could remember that incident when a besotted fellow Puff had invited the Marauders and how even weeks later after the visit, pranks had been triggered by unsuspecting students.

Marianne couldn't stop the eye roll and light twitching of her lips while she inspected the room closer. It must have been a former teaching quarter because she saw the doors leading to a bathroom and two other rooms, now really smiling she turned to the Marauder.

"It's amazing Sirius, thank you!" Marianne said happily and slightly amused as she saw how Sirius preened at her words, he was like an overgrown puppy! But she really was thankful for his consideration; it had been tedious to find a place where she could play without distractions.

"The only problem is the furniture, of course we could transfigure something but that wouldn't hold long enough or wouldn't be comfortable,…" he said slightly frustrated.

Making a split second decision, Marianne giggled and said "I know where we can find furniture." and took his hand and led him up to the seventh floor to the room of requirement.

Sirius was kind of baffled as he watched the younger girl walk up and down the corridor until a door materialized in front of her.  
She seemed so shy most of the time but the way she had taken his hand and led him hear had been downright bold. He grinned slightly and followed Marianne into the hidden room before them.

Inside was the most amazing room he had ever seen. Tables, couches, mirrors, tableware, cloths, everything that normally furnished a house had been stacked in giant piles, with small narrow walks between them.  
For the first time in a very long time Sirius was completely speechless as he followed the blonde girl into this surreal room.

"I,… what, what is this room?" he stammered while he looked up to stare at the piles that nearly reached the ceiling.

Marianne couldn't help the slight smile on her face "This, is the room of requirement, or the come and go room as the houseelves call it. You walk three times before the hidden door and think about what you want and the room appears like you have imagined it. At the moment everything that was lost in Hogwarts is in this room. Astonishing isn't it?" and with that Marianne made her way to the first pile of couches and asked Sirius "See anything you like?".

Sirius just shook his head and started to laugh before he said "THIS, is bloody amazing!" and then looked at the different couches critically "Hhm, I would say the black leather couch looks comfortable, what do you think?"

Marianne just nodded and sent a shrinking charm at the piece before pocketing it into her book bag.  
Grinning Sirius took her by the hand and led her to the next pile, where they selected two beautiful black and comfortable looking armchairs that would match the sofa. Those were followed by an antic glass coffee table, a red fluffy carpet, yellow checkered giant blankets, a few silver candleholders as well as some cabinets and bookshelves just for the hell of it.

Sirius had a lot of fun while deciding how to furnish their hideaway. Marianne was sweet and playful after she got over her shyness and looked like she enjoyed herself.  
On his insistence they also got a giant double bed for the bedroom, funnily enough Sirius hadn't thought more practical this time than with his second head.  
He had been thinking about the nights he had sometimes slept out of the common room because the teacher patrol had been increased and he couldn't enter the common room without being caught.

As compensation he had let Marianne decide how to furnish the last room. He was surprised when she started to pick outdated but still functional cauldrons and potion laboratory furnishing.  
Curious he asked her about this and she shyly said that she enjoyed experimenting with potions quite a bit but didn't want to ask Slughorn for additional lab time for her experiments because as she had mentioned before she felt uncomfortable about the big fuss he made about her talent and secondly because the rooms were in the dungeons.  
Dungeons were Slytherin territory and she wouldn't want to be caught down there alone close to curfew or otherwise. Being one of Slughorn's favorite wouldn't help her one bit if a Slytherin decided to attack or 'play' with her.

Sirius nodded at that, sensible, but really it was only common sense nowadays. The Wizarding world was close to a civil war and the conflict had long reached Hogwarts. The Slytherins were trying to intimidate the other students to go along with their program and Sirius himself was right in the middle of it with being seen as a blood traitor for being sorted into Gryffindor and not buying the crap about Pureblood supremacy.  
Sirius was lucky enough to be magically powerful and that he had good friends that watched his back when they had an encounter with the house of Snakes.

From what he had seen until now Marianne wasn't one to seek confrontation and conflict. No she seemed too shy for that and being a half-blood didn't make her case any better. The Slytherins would eat her for breakfast if she was caught alone by them.  
Surprisingly an unnatural strong wave of fury cursed through his body. Sirius felt surprised by himself; of course he didn't like it when fellow students were picked on only because of their blood status, but outright rage?  
He hadn't even felt that strongly when former bed partners of his were attacked because of their blood status. Something about Marianne Abbott let his protective instincts run completely haywire and strangely enough it didn't bother him one bit.

Sirius mulled over these feelings, Marianne was two years younger and very shy; she would need better protection if the situation in Hogwarts got even worse.  
Coming to this conclusion he kept watching Marianne flutter between the different stacks and pick up towels for the bathroom, as well as still sealed bottles of shampoo and conditioner. She hummed a happy tune under her breath while she picked up some books lying around with a curious but happy smile.  
Then and there Sirius decided that no, he really wasn't bothered by feeling protective over the witch before him, even if it didn't fit into his bad boy image and he would make sure that she was out of the reach of the Slytherins.

Marianne had fun while she 'shopped' with Sirius, he had surprisingly good taste. She had feared that he would only choose red and gold furniture for the quarters and turn stubborn when argued with, but no he had kept to the tasteful stuff and only chose one red piece, a beautiful crimson carpet.  
To be honest the double bed had frown her slightly of kilter but she had decided to wait and see if Sirius tried something before accusing him of anything untoward.  
After all she had promised herself not to be talked into anything with the infamous Marauder, no matter how big her crush was, the heart ache wasn't worth it.

So she had also shrunk bed linen in dark blue and white for the double bed as well as two bedside tables and a wardrobe for shit and giggles. They had spent nearly an hour in the RoR and made their way slowly back to the second floor, after all they could come back anytime.

Back on the second floor Sirius watched shortly as Marianne reversed the shrinking charms on the furniture before he started with the privacy charms and notice me not charms on the door after considering the incident with the other abandoned classroom he also added ghost blocking and redirecting charms to the quarters.  
After he was finished he was sure that even if the door was wide open nobody would feel the urge to investigate further and just close the classroom door again.

Satisfied with his work Sirius walked into the sitting area that had already been completed. In the middle was the couch with the coffee table and the two armchairs, the red carpet underneath them. On the right side were the bookshelves and the cabinets, decorated by candleholders and small interesting looking knickknacks that he hadn't seen Marianne pick up.

A few books were also already in the shelves, curious an exploring Sirius wandered into the biggest room after the sitting room. Marianne had decided to use it as the bedroom, the bed linen of the double poster bed were blue and white and on both sides were bedside tables as well as a wardrobe in the corner.  
Marianne had thought of everything, had it been him, he would have just put a bed into the room and probably would have forgotten the bedding.

A quick look into the bathroom confirmed his musings, she really had thought about everything. He could see a bath rug, towels, shampoo even soap!  
Sirius grin had gotten gradually bigger while he wandered through the quarters, should they still be close by his graduation, he would invite Marianne to help him furnish his own home.

He found her in the smallest room, placing the last test tubes in the cupboard on the side while in the middle was a work table as well as two cauldrons over gas burners. The shelf beside the door was still empty but he was sure it would be filled up in no time with either potions or ingredients.

After finishing with the sorting the test tubes into the cupboard, Marianne turned around to the work area to start with the protection and security charms that her father had taught her the moment she got her wand. Finished and feeling content with her work she turned around to see Sirius leaning in the door watching her intently.  
Marianne cursed her stupid hormones when she felt her cheeks becoming hot; of course she had to blush!

Sirius had to bite the inside of his mouth to stop himself from laughing; she was so cute, turning red and shy as soon as she wasn't distracted anymore. To be honest the eldest Black son was impressed, those charms were tricky and were normally used only by professional potion masters as far as he knew, they had learned that from Slughorn the week before, when he demonstrated a few ways to make their brewing safe in their homes.

A quick glance on his watch showed that they had only an hour till dinner left and so the two agreed to meet the next day after the afternoon classes, before Sirius made his way to the Quidditch pitch where James held the trials for the new reserve team.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

In the following weeks the quarters received another row of cupboards as well as a desk and chair on the left wall of the sitting room.  
After realizing how much better she could concentrate here, Marianne moved all her potion and other notes to the den, as she had started to call it fondly, because exactly that was it.

When Marianne needed time for herself or feel secure she would hide out here, because as much as she loved her fellow Hufflepuffs the common room was not a good place to do homework and with the current political climate and more or less Cold War at Hogwarts, the library and the Great Hall weren't as secure as the teachers liked to believe. Marianne had already been victim of a misdirected curse and at another time her homework had been destroyed.  
Most of the time she was joined by Sirius 2-3 times a week, he came to their place when he needed to calm down or to simply relax because of one thing or another.

If there was one thing Marianne had learned in the last weeks was that Sirius Black was very hot-tempered and that he normally alleviated his blood pressure with playing pranks or simply hexing bullies, his favorite target being Severus Snape. But due to the increased presence of the teachers in the halls the Black hadn't had enough opportunities to get rid of his pent up emotions.  
Marianne had seen Sirius more than once cursing up a storm inside the now heavily warded bedroom or pacing in the living room.  
Strangely enough it didn't make the slightly skittish Hufflepuff uncomfortable, she felt safe with Sirius, after all he had never ever tried to alleviate his blood pressure while using her.

But back to the Slytherins, to be more exact a certain greasy haired one.  
Severus Tobias Snape was the most unpleasant student in Hogwarts. FULL STOP.  
Marianne had known this of course from the memories of her witch side but she was still shocked about how nasty the 6th year Slytherin truly was. When Snape was in a bad mood, which to be honest was quite often. He particularly enjoyed terrorizing the younger years of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.  
Bringing them to tears in less than a minute or hexing them so that they had to spend the rest of the day in the infirmary were his favorite past times.  
The rivalry and hate between him and the Marauders was legendary and was far far worse than Joanne K. Rowling had described it in her books.  
In those the Marauders were described as overconfident bullies that didn't know when to stop. Yes they were overconfident; yes they bullied some of the Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws, but not without cause.

Rowling often described Severus Snape as the poor ugly duckling that was teased and beaten by the big bad swans, but that wasn't the truth. Rowling had just picked one or two occasions where the Gryffindors had really overdone it because Snape gave as good as he got and lashed out at everything that moved with the exception of his own house, the teachers and Lily Evans.  
He was a cruel, dreadful person and Marianne was absolutely horrified at the idea that somebody like him would be teaching future generations of potion makers. He had probably ruined a good number of promising students with his demeanor. Those children had probably simply decided that a potion career wasn't worth suffering through more years than absolutely necessary under Snape's tutelage.

Another clashing point between those to fractions besides the obvious ones about blood status was Lily Evans, beautiful, kind, hot tempered and very, very muggleborn Lily who still was friends with Snape.  
And this friendship drove James Potter completely bonkers, well at least that was what Sirius said while he complained about his best friend good naturedly.

It seemed that Snape could hide his cruel side very well in company of the red haired Gryffindor beauty and so let James look like an even more spoilt brat than he truly was.  
Because let's face it James Charlus Potter was the only child of his parents and had arrived very late in their lives. So of course they had spoilt him rotten, which now hampered his chances with Lily Evans.

And really in the two months since the start of the year that she had spent with one of the Gryffindor Beaters, Marianne had learned more about the intricate relationships between the Marauders and some other Gryffindors than she had learned in the last four years or through the books.

Marianne also finally came around to have enough potion ingredients to start experimenting herself, it reminded her of the experiments they had done in chemistry, which she had always found exciting.  
At first she did easy things, like getting rid of the horrid taste of some of the basic healing potions. This required simply more ingredients than a standard pepper up or headache potion would normally take, which was why the cheaper version were written down in the potion texts. But after a while she finally turned to her witch sides' true passion, poisons and their antidotes.

Marianne had a good dozen of the most lethal potions memorized in her head that could be made out of some rather basic ingredients.  
She had always been fascinated by the thought of how such relatively harmless parts could be turned into a lethal weapon with a bit of thought. And this passion and fascination had carried over into this new Marianne.  
The confidence boost that she had gained from the older muggle Marianne made her experiment with more and more difficult potions and poisons. To counterattack the adverse effects she started to take them in small doses to build up immunity against them.

A few weeks later she had one of the first real fights with Sirius because of her experiments. She had come late into Den because Flitwick had given them an extended lecture about the importance of charm rules after a particular botched up charm had landed two students in the infirmary.

Tired she just wanted to sit down and relax a bit when she caught sight of Sirius smelling on one of her experimental potions.  
She nearly had a heart attack and screamed at him to put it down, jumping up and running to the laboratory to snatch the poison out of his hand and re-corking it before she grabbed a dose of antidote and interrogated Sirius about which bottles he had smelled. He thankfully had only smelled the one she had caught him with and so she had to only make him drink the antidote in her hands without having to drag him down to Pomfrey for a checkup.

After the first shock disappeared Marianne let herself fall into the black leather sofa before anger slowly built in her gut, how unbelievable stupid was Sirius? And with that in mind she started a tirade about smelling on unknown potions and proper handling of brews, which of course made Sirius very defensive and angry as well

"Merlin damn it, I know, but what was so bad about me being there. I only looked for a Pepper-up and that potion had the right color, I just wanted to check if it wasn't something different."

As an answer Marianne started to hysterically laugh before she cried "Sirius, you idiot, you have no idea what that was or do you? I oh Merlin, I nearly killed you, I've been experimenting with some poisons, if I hadn't caught you smelling it, it could have killed you!"

It suddenly hit her like a brick wall her experiments had nearly killed her closest friend! And with that she broke down in gut wrenching sobs. After her answer Sirius went very pale and quiet before he sat down beside her and hesitantly took her into his arms and hugged her.

"It's okay, you caught my mistake in time, please stop crying, I… I really can't take watching you cry, look I'm fine,… I will even stay out of your lab I promise, just, just stop crying!"

Sirius looked at his wits end while he tried to comfort Marianne, who slowly stopped her sobbing until she only hiccupped from time to time and buried even closer into Sirius warm embrace.  
The idiot was alive and safe, but oh Merlin she had come really close to losing him! She wouldn't know what to do if she really lost him! She could finally admit it, even if only to herself, Sirius Black was her anchor in this new and strange world, the one that made her laugh and broke through her shyness.

She sniffled again while she felt Sirius grab one of the big yellow blankets and put it around both of them. Now that she finally had calmed down a bit Marianne took in her position. During her crying fit Sirius had pulled her onto his lap and encasing her in his warm arms. Her ear was lying on his heart while he softly stroked through her hair. She swallowed, it felt really good to be that close to the Gryffindor.  
They ended up spending nearly an hour in this position, before Marianne finally moved. Her tear tracks had dried up and while her eyes were still slightly puffy she looked a lot more composed.

"You wanted a Pepper-up, didn't you? Are you alright?" she asked while she took in his exhausted face and the dark rings under his eyes.

He just answered with a yawn "Yeah, rough night, spent the whole night awake and I think I have caught a cold."

Nodding Marianne stood up and made her way into the lab to grab a Pepper up and some cough drops for the next day.

Grateful he swallowed the potion and pocketed the drops before he pulled her back down onto the couch and into a hug before he asked her "We good?".

Marianne nodded and returned the hug before mumbling into his shirt "I will start to stock up the bathroom with Pepper-ups and other useful Potions. Please promise me Sirius that you will check with me before you take something from the lab again."

The last part was said so imploringly that Sirius couldn't help the small smile and the reassuring kiss to her forehead, "I will, I promise."

After that they spent the rest of their time together quiet working in each other's presence.  
Sirius on his homework, while Marianne finished filling in the gaps of The Tale of Peter the Rabbit and Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider. She had enjoyed those books immensely when she had read them with her kids and hoped they would also be popular in the Wizarding world.

Sirius couldn't help but look up again, to check if Marianne was really fine. This incident had clearly shaken her up, even more so than himself after all he always lived dangerous, be it while spending his time with a werewolf on full moon or playing around with more or less potent pranks.  
This was also the first time he had had Marianne in his arms, before that there were only fleeting touches and teasing pokes.  
She had fit well into his arms, her smaller form had felt surprisingly fragile and he had been afraid that he would break her the moment he grasped a little bit harder.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Meeting Prongs and Moony**

"He is gone again!"

Came the frustrated yell from James while he let himself fall onto the couch beside Remus. Said werewolf just glanced at his friends and just smirked slightly. Oh he had a good idea what Padfoot was doing even if he didn't know where. The Quidditch captain of Gryffindor noticed the tiny smirk on Remus face and became instantly suspicious.

"You know something!" he accused the fellow Gryffindor. A noncommittal hum just made him even more suspicious "Out with it, seriously, I'm getting concerned Padfoot normally never vanishes this often!".

This time Remus was openly grinned at the bespectacled boy before he singsonged "It's a girl."

"Girls, but that's typical Padfoot behavior, he loves them and then leaves them, end of story." James pouted.

Shaking his head Remus put his homework away and turned to James "I know, but under the ever changing escapades of our fellow Gryffindor is one smell that hasn't changed since the start of this year."

James nearly choked on his Butterbeer as he sent Remus and unbelievingly look "You're joking!".

Said werewolf just rolled his eyes "I can smell her on him,… and the funny thing is he hasn't even slept with her yet."

The last part was said decidedly mischievous, James jaw dropped and he just stared at Remus for a while until he clapped his mouth shut and looked pensively at the stone wall before him. He then suddenly stood up and grinned his Marauder grin that told everybody who caught a glimpse of it that somebody was going to get pranked.

"That I have to see. Starting tomorrow we are on Mission: find Padfoot's secret girl!" James announced while Remus just sighed, but he knew better than to try to talk James out of it, the wizard was more stubborn than a hippogriff.

"Are we telling Wormtail?" he asked the stag animagus.

"Na he still has detention tomorrow and until we know exactly what is going on we will keep our mouths shut and Wormtail is horrible at that, so no."

Remus nodded at that before he turned back to his book while he contemplated if he should pity Sirius and that mysterious girl of his. Oh well he should have known better than try to hide something like that from James and him, it was just like asking to be pranked.

Marianne waited like always in their little hide away, writing down some short stories that had kept eluding her until recently and contemplating how to fit them into the book that she wanted to publish.  
When the door opened she didn't look up after all she had been expecting Sirius to stroll in like usual, but this time he wasn't alone.

"Marianne, it seems like we have been found out. I want to introduce you to my best friends! This fellow pranking schemer and Gryffindor is the infamous James Potter also otherwise known as Mr. Prongs, the sedulous Quidditch fiend and defeater of evil Slytherins. And this other handsome fellow is the knowledgeable Remus Lupin, your fellow bibliophile, secret brains of our notorious group and breaker of sweet Ravenclaw hearts, who also goes by Mr. Moony!"

Introduced Sirius the two other Gryffindors, Marianne hid a smile behind her hand and giggled quietly, she loved it when Sirius talked like this.

"PADFOOT!" Remus scolded "I certainly do not break Ravenclaw hearts!"

"Oh yeah? And what about Melinda Whiterby, she was in tears when you declined her Hogsmeade invitation." Came the question from a grinning James that seemed to find the whole encounter hilarious.

"Anyway!" with two wide steps Sirius was suddenly beside her and hugged Marianne from behind, his arms around her waist "Prongs, Moony, THIS is Marianne Abbott, the reason why I disappear now and so often."

Beet red in the face Marianne cautiously tried to unwounded Sirius arms from her body and eventually succeeded before she gave the two other boys a shy wave. She couldn't even look them into the eyes, her shyness made her turn beet red, ugh that was so embarrassing! Why did Sirius have to hug her? It made her useless for any conversation for the next few minutes!

After the first few awkward moments Sirius and James took it on themselves to make her feel comfortable while Remus watched her curiously. Relaxing a bit she let herself be talked into playing and singing a bit for the three older boys, it seemed that it didn't only have a soothing effect on Sirius but also on the other two Marauders. The whole time the other two boys were there Sirius was touching her in one way or the other as if he was staking claim on Marianne. Secretly said blonde witch enjoyed this possessive behavior.

To be honest Marianne had expected the teasing to become out of hand and make her uncomfortable, but somehow Sirius seemed to always find a way to divert his friend, because let's be honest Remus was too kind to tease her.  
She spent enjoying talking to Remus about Potions while the two other boys were engaged in their newest prank idea and when the two left she felt happy and positive about future encounters.

When James and Remus left they sent promising in Sirius' direction. Said Marauder was well aware that he was in for a lot of ribbing in the future, but honestly he didn't mind as much as he would have a year ago, hell even 4 months ago he would never even dreamed about taking crap because of a girl like James did all the time because of Lily.

That night lying in his red poster bed Sirius grinned like a loon while he let himself relive the evening, both Prongs and Moony approved of his little Hufflepuff and had told him so when they had intercepted him outside the common room.  
He hadn't expected to introduce them to her, at least not yet, but oh well he should have known that he couldn't fool those two, Peter was easy, everybody could fool him, but hide something from those two? Tze, he was losing his touch.

Anyway, they had followed him after lunch and confronted him a corridor away of the Den.  
During the introduction, he had cleverly used her being caught off guard to put his arms around her. Since the poison incident he didn't seem to be able to keep his hands off that cute little Hufflepuff.  
He had loved feeling her in his arms and from now on he was going after the smaller girls with a little bit extra weight on them. This time he had finally got a good grope in without being to suspicious and Merlin was it worth it.  
Marianne had been so soft and smelled really good, some type of shampoo that made Padfoot howl in approval in his mind. While holding her he had trouble resisting the urge to bury his head in her neck and hair. Marianne had been shy at first and nearly mute, but the nervousness vanished after they had made her comfortable and she had played her first song. Both James and Remus had been enthused about her playing.

The afternoon had been enjoyable, but he still had to talk with both James and Remus, Marianne belonged to him and although he would tolerate them from time to time, he expected them to stay away from her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

October was rapidly coming to an end and suddenly it was the 1th November, Sirius and Marianne's routine didn't change that much since the meeting with Remus and James-  
The only exception was that now Remus would sometimes seek her company during their visits to the library. She enjoyed talking to the calmest of the Marauders, he was always kind to her and explained parts of the curriculum with which she had problems.  
When she admitted that she struggled in Charms, he suggested to ask Sirius for help, after all he was a charms prodigy and he would surely help her if she asked.

And so Marianne found herself with Sirius as her Charms tutor, which really helped her as soon as she had a good grasp of the theory. Sirius showed her short cuts and other useful tricks to make the subject easier for her.  
In compensation she started to work with him on his potioneer skills, after he had confessed to her that he wanted to become an Auror after graduation.  
Sirius would need good results in Potions for that to happen and while he was achieving the bare minimum for the job Marianne still thought that it was better if he had a solid grasp on the material instead of a slightly shaky one.  
And like this the weeks passed until they were a week away from the beginning of the Winter holidays.

Marianne would take the train home while Sirius, Remus and James would stay. On the days before she finally went home, Marianne searched the RoR for a pensieve, as well as some journals with extensive security charms on them, she had that idea after another frustrating day where she only could remember one part of a story.

The evening before her train ride home she sang some Christmas carols for the Marauders and promised to write and after that the four indulged into the cookies brought from the kitchens.  
Those meetings had been happening always during Peter's detentions so that he wouldn't get suspicious, the Marauders couldn't tell why but their gut told them to keep Marianne a secret from their friend and the rest of Hogwarts.

For that Marianne was thankful, because the atmosphere in the castle had taken another nosedive for the worse and Marianne wasn't sure if she could have survived it if the Slytherins had concentrated on her for fraternizing with their enemy number one.

The train ride home was unexciting; Marianne sat with three of her fellow Hufflepuffs, who were talking excited about their plans for the holidays. At the train station she was picked up by Michael, their father had been called for an emergency and would be occupied for the next two days.

The two Abbott siblings used the time to catch up, Michael told her about his work while Marianne only talked to him about the general happenings. Michael seemed to have sensed something because he began to prod her until she finally relented and told him about her secret friendship with Sirius Black and her hidden potion lab.

Michael wasn't sure how to answer to that, of course his sweet little sister had to befriend the most notorious playboy in Hogwarts!? Now he would worry about her even more, and this time not only because the tension in Hogwarts between the fractions had grown and would continue so, but because she would probably get her heart broken by the older Gryffindor.

Michael sighed but decided against forbidding her to see him again; this would only increase her stubbornness he was sure. No as hard as it was, he would have to let her make her own mistakes.  
Instead of thinking about Sirius infamous reputation he concentrated on the fact that she had set up her own potion lab and was now experimenting on her own potions.

Intrigued he started to ask about her successes and with a giggle and small smile Marianne took out a brown journal and handed it over. In there she had neatly written down any potion she had experimented with plus the outcomes of those potions.

Michael couldn't help himself but pat her on the head and tell her how proud dad would be when he came home the following day. The rest of their time together they talked about generic topics before they ate dinner and relaxed with some books in the drawing room.

The next day Marianne was finally able to greet her father and spent some time with him. Just as Michael predicted he was elated about her experiments and even made room for her in the potion labs.  
They spent the first two days relaxing and recounting their last months before Marianne finally brought up her courage to ask her dad about Wizarding publish companies.

Slightly confused he told her that she would have to talk to the owner about publishing a new book. After some soft prodding Marianne brought her collection of children stories for her brother and father to read.  
Both were very surprised because they didn't expect something like that from her. After finishing with the stories Thomas decided to contact one of his old colleagues about his daughters work.

Only a day after sending a copy per owl, the chief editor wrote excited back that they would publish her book as soon as possible and that it had only reaped positive results from the staff. Excited about the good news Marianne spent most of her days giggling or skipping through the house while her closest relatives were watching her amused.

The book landed in the shops five days before Christmas and from the enthusiastic letters from the company it had been an instant hit with magical families everywhere.  
As a consequence her father even opened an extra account for her and the first time she visited she was astonished of how much money she had made in the first week alone. As a reward for herself she changed some of the money into muggle currency and spent the day surrounded by non magical Christmas shoppers.

The trip to muggle London finally gave Marianne an idea for a Christmas present for Sirius. James would receive some muggle chocolate and a muggle pranking book while Remus would get an extended copy of the Ancient Runes encyclopedia that he had been drooling over for the last month.

In the window of a second hand shop Marianne found a motorbike model of the machine that Sirius had owned in the movies, a 1959 Triumph Bonneville T120, in whites and reds. It came with a second headlight and the original boxing. The motorbike was nearly 15 inches long and 7 inches high.

Back at home she roped Michael into enchanting the front light to play a record of Sirius' favorite song, sung by her. Sirius would only have to tap the front light once with his wand to play it or interrupt it.  
After some further thinking she duplicated the reserve front light and recorded four more songs for him. Happy with the results she called it jokingly the prehistoric magical ipod.

On Christmas day the Abbotts spent the day like usual, after an extended breakfast they opened their presents and then spent the rest of the day as family doing one thing or another. Marianne had always loved this time of the year.

Her father was gifted with an old journal of a potioneer of the 16th century that she had found in the RoR and Michael became an antique white peacock feather quill with matching ink bottle to add to his collection.  
He had been collecting quills since he had been 15 and Marianne was glad that she had found that particular quill in a second hand shop in Diagon Alley. With a quick reparo and some preserving spells the abrasions were hidden and the beautiful piece would make a good addition to his growing collection.

Both had been very happy with their presents and in return Marianne received her own copy of _Moste Potente Potions_ as well as an extended Potion kit. Happy and itching to experiment with the new ingredients Marianne nearly missed the pile of the Marauders.  
James had gotten her the lyrics and notes of a very popular wizarding band while Remus had send her a book about obscure plants and their properties. Sirius present was in comparison small, the box had been tiny, but the content made her happier than any other present she had received.

It was a delicate silver bracelet. On it were already four charms, a guitar, a cauldron, a music note as well as a tiny dog_. _The moment she put it on she could feel the protection charms starting to work.

Sirius must have worked on this for a long time because the sheer power that she felt attaching itself to her magical core was astonishing. He had included a letter with the exact properties and while she felt the bracelet adjusting to her magical strength she read through it.

Beside the anti-theft and preserving charms he had also included a powerful shield charm into the dog. She would have to concentrate on the thought of the shield and channel her magic through her hand to activate it.  
Furthermore was a poison detection charm incorporated in the tiny cauldron, it would activate the moment she brought the fluid to her mouth so that she could work undisturbed at her potions.  
On the guitar and the music note were respectively cheering and warming charms.

Sirius explained in the letter that the bracelet was partly powered by his charms but would start to siphon magical power from her to stay in top condition. Marianne started to realize the complexity of her present and the time that Sirius would have had to have spent on charming it for her, she couldn't help but blush and smile happily. She was unaware of how both her father and brother watched her while she contemplated her bracelet.  
Unbeknownst to them they both thought the same, this was not one of the cheap protections charms the shops sold for a galleon in Diagon Alley, no this was made with specifically her in mind by a powerful charms prodigy.

Later that day Thomas took his oldest child to the side and asked him plainly "Do you know from whom she got that bracelet?"

Michael winced, of course their father had taken notice of Marianne's behavior and the thoughtful present, he shook his head and sighed before he answered "No, but I have a suspicion."

"So?" Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sirius Black."Michael said slightly chagrinned.

At that Thomas firstly furrowed his brows in confusion before his eyes widened "Isn't that the notorious playboy you have been complaining about last year?"

Michael could only nod while Thomas groaned. Great, of course it was Sirius Black's present that made his daughter this happy.  
His son filled him in on what Marianne had told him about their meeting and continued friendship while Thomas indulged into a glass of Schletters Fine Whisky and listened.

The Abbott patriarch acknowledged that they shouldn't interfere with this relationship, at least not at the moment; it would only drive Marianne to rebel against them. At least the Black heir seemed to take his friendship with his daughter serious, from what Thomas had seen and felt from the present it wasn't some cheap thing that Black would be able to spread between his conquests to appease them. No it was something with more meaning. Even so, from now on he would have to keep a close eye on his daughter's possible prospects he had thought that he would have some more time before that happened. Fact was that he wanted only the best for his little girl and she was now changing into a young woman as much as he liked to deny that fact.

During the holidays Marianne spent a good deal of her time in the pensieve that she had nicked from the RoR, it helped her memories about the songs and books of her old world, as well as her recollection of the Harry Potter books.

The day after Christmas Marianne had decided that she would interfere with the time line of this world, she just couldn't let her best friend rot in Azkaban for something he had never done! Also Harry deserved to grow up with his family and have a nice time at Hogwarts, she wasn't quite sure how she would solve the Dark Lord problem but she still had 3-4 years time to destroy the Horcruxes and find a solution for the Death Eaters.

During the Winter holidays Marianne's and Sirius owls were nearly constantly on the move, carrying letters from one owner to the other, sometimes only to recount the latest prank or how Marianne had spent her day. She also got letters from her fellow Hufflepuffs and Remus but nothing as intense as her letter contact with Sirius.  
Her brother and father were slowly realizing that this friendship between her and Sirius Black was far more serious than they had imagined.

A week before she took the train back to Hogwarts Marianne had her first book signing, she had been quite nervous the last few days and had barely eaten. That morning her father had finally interfered and had handed her a calming draught. So that she would survive the next 4 hours without fainting or a nervous breakdown.

At Flourish and Blott's there was a surprising big crowd waiting for her, as soon as she saw all the excited children she relaxed a bit. She was glad that she had made them happy, even if she still felt a tiny bit guilty about stealing the ideas of other authors, but slowly and steadily she came to accept this fact, nobody would ever know that the ideas weren't from her, so no harm done.  
She spent the next few hours signing books and thanking the parents and children for their compliments.

She didn't know it, but the easy way she handled the children endeared her even more to the parents, who thought that she was adorable, sitting behind the giant table, dwarfed by copies of her books with flushed cheeks and a sparkle in her eyes.

Marianne recognized some of her fellow students, most of them came with younger siblings and looked at her wide-eyed when she signed the books for them. The book signing was finished at one o'clock and after that the Abbott family ate lunch in one of the better restaurants in Diagon Alley before returning home.

With the book signing Marianne's Winter holidays also came to an end and before she realized it, she sat in the train back to Hogwarts. Arriving in Scotland it was like she had never left, Sirius and her fell right back into their routine from before, both thanking each other for their respective present.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

With the lessons starting up again the teachers seemed to think that they had to remind them of that fact with additional projects and homework. Both Sirius and Marianne were very busy all January and only found room to breathe with the beginning of February.

With that month her friendship with Sirius took another turn, he had somehow convinced her to visit the Gryffindor common room at least once a week.  
The first time had been really awkward, she had been introduced to Peter Pettigrew and Sirius' other year mates. Marianne hadn't quite known how to react and so had remained quiet for the first 20 minutes until Sirius, James and Remus started to involve her in their conversations.  
Peter had remained silent the whole time and had been watching her distrustfully, his eyes on Sirius arms that seemed to always gravitate to her body and touch her.

The female Gryffindors weren't sure what to make out of the little Hufflepuff that Sirius had brought with him. He didn't treat her like one of his conquests that he had brought to the common room before and she wasn't his normal type. Even stranger was the fact that he defended her against James when he teased her a bit about her shyness. They finally made their minds up when which Sirius had put his arms around her and hugged her from behind, she had squeaked in surprise and the noise had been audible in the whole common room. The poor girl had turned beet red under the amused gazes of the Gryffindors, and that had it been for the older and more maternal Gryffindor females, they started to coo over the cute shy blonde girl, in their eyes she was utterly adorable and was worth protecting from a fiend like Sirius Black.

They tried to lure her away from Sirius and into one of the female dorm rooms but this just earned them death glares from said boy who had pulled the smaller girl even closer and told them in a definite voice "Mine!".

This led to Marianne be on the receiving ends of several death glares from Sirius' ex-conquests and some of the hopefuls. In the next weeks they learned that pretty quickly to be nice to the younger Hufflepuff if they wanted to have even a fleeting chance with the playboy.

The people who didn't learn that were instantly on Sirius shit list and were pranked mercilessly in revenge by the Marauders. Marianne wasn't sure how, but the Marauders had been able to keep the information of Marianne from spreading to the other houses, which she was quite thankful for.

* * *

Since creating Sirius' Christmas present with her brother's help, the idea of a magical ipod hadn't left her mind, always swirling around in the back of her head until she finally gave in and asked her runes teacher for help.

Gilfried Gamp was an older wizard and pretty close to retirement but he still sharp as a tack, he was pretty well liked by the student body because he was always encouraging them to work harder and create something new.  
When Marianne finally approached him on a Thursday after class he listened patiently to the young girl about her idea.  
He hadn't been convinced that her idea would work but instead of shooting her down he had helped her with the creation of a basic rune sequence to play and record a song and recommended different books for her project.  
He told Marianne that if she made it work and suitably impressed him, that he would talk to the faculty to recognize it as her OWL project that she would have to do the following year.

His rejection of the idea didn't bother Marianne; she knew that it would sell should she ever be able to make it functional and so worked with renewed vigor on her idea.

During March, Marianne finally approached Remus about his werewolf condition. She asked him to take a walk with her after they had finished homework in the library.

After casting some privacy charms around them when they reached the clock tower Marianne looked Remus straight into the eyes while she stated "I know of your secret Remus. You're a werewolf."

Remus tensed and stared stunned at her, completely pale he opened his mouth and then closed it again and looked close to a heart attack, uh oh, maybe she shouldn't have been so blunt!

Hurriedly she tried to assure him "Hey, it's okay, calm down Remus! I just wanted you to know that I found out."

"I,… how?" he croaked while he looked at the small hand that had laid itself on his upper arm, why was she touching him when she knew?

The tiny Hufflepuff just looked concerned and said "Do you want to sit down? Yes we are sitting down!" and dragged him down to the wood beam which stood out beside them. "I spend a lot of time with you and I noticed how your illness comes in cycles and always is the worst around the full moon, and than your nickname, Moony,…"

Technically true, she had kept a close eye on the gentle werewolf and always had chocolate or another treat around full moon with her.

"The nickname was Sirius idea wasn't it?"

Remus just rolled his eyes exasperated while he nodded at that.

"So,… you are not afraid of me?" the Gryffindor asked carefully, Marianne meant a lot to Sirius and he himself had started to see her as pack member.

"No,… well technically no, if I ever meet you during full moon I will probably be terrified and run as fast as I can."

She joked while she smiled up at him sweetly. No Marianne hadn't lied during their whole conversation; he would have smelled a lie, especially that close to the full moon. Moony inside him howled triumphal at being accepted by another pack mate.  
Remus couldn't help but feel relieved and freed from a burden, Marianne had become an important part of his live in those last six months and he would have never really gotten over the fact if she had rejected him because of his condition.  
The two made their way back to the Gryffindor common room, sharing some Honeyduke chocolate, that Marianne had taken with her to alleviate his fears.

The Marauders, with the exception of Peter, were elated that she had taken the news so calmly and was now in the know.  
Pettigrew had always been mistrustful and jealous of anybody who became close to the Marauders but most of the time those drifted away after they became 'too boring to hang out with' as James called it.  
But this damnable Hufflepuff had been hanging on for more than two months and now she also knew about one of their best guarded secrets! There had to be a way to get rid of her!  
Peter had never had the courage to say or do something before but maybe this time he had to do something before she replaced him completely.

Two months later Marianne was infinitely glad about the fact that she had informed Remus about her knowledge. So she hadn't had to explain herself when she came running on one Tuesday before the full moon and dragged James, Remus and Sirius out of the common room.  
Peter wasn't there he had detention with McGonagall for repeatedly forgetting his homework. Marianne hastily explained what she had overheard in the library only minutes before between Snape and Lily.

"… _and I'm telling you there is something wrong with Lupin! I don't buy his excuses; he is always absent every other month with one ridiculous excuse after the other. I WILL find out what is truly going on, mark my words!"_

"_Severus please, I think this is Remus business. I know it is strange but he is my friend and if he doesn't want me to know I won't press him further,…"_

"_Still,…"_

Remus had gone ghostly white after he heard the news.  
Sirius on the other side had this twinkling in his eyes that told everybody that he had something nasty in mind.

"Well, well, well, if Snivellus wants to find out we can arrange that,…"

He couldn't complete the sentence before three resolute NO's shut him up. Marianne frowned while she lectured the oldest Black son.

"Don't be ridiculous Sirius, should Snape find out about Remus it would cause more harm to Remus then Snape, so don't even think about it!"

James beside Marianne nodded "She is right, we can't do that, we have to somehow prevent Snape from finding out,…".

All four of them mulled this over before Marianne just turned to Remus and said "Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey are in the know aren't they? Well go tell those two, maybe they know what to do."

Remus looked relieved and James and Sirius just nodded before the three boys said goodbye and went straight down to Madame Pomfrey.  
Later she was informed that Dumbledore would take care of the problem.

In the end they had never learned what Dumbledore said to Snape, but from then on he kept his mouth shut concerning Remus monthly illness.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Meeting Regulus Black**

Marianne made her way down to the library; she had to finish her homework because she was sure that tomorrow wouldn't be any time for it. Sighing she jumped from the last step and made her way into Ms. Pince territory.

Searching for an empty table she chose one that was hidden from sight behind the section of the fantasy books. Marianne had been using said table for the last few times she had to research something.  
She enjoyed being out of the direct vision of the librarian and the other students. Nobody bothered her there and could involve her into the house rivalry. Furthermore after finishing her homework she liked to watch them working and interacting with their friends.

With a sigh she concentrated on her Potion homework, Slughorn may be a competent teacher and brewer but the way he sucked up to her and other students with exceptional talents or connections disgusted her.  
With a quick look at the topic she had determined which books she would need and made her way to the potion section, which was thankfully directly in her field of vision.

Finishing relatively quickly, Marianne addressed also her charms and astronomy homework, until a silent curse directed her attention to the potion section.  
A black haired Slytherin was searching the shelves for a book. At a closer looked she recognized Regulus Black. They had Potions and Herbology together. Biting her lip Marianne was unsure, approaching a Slytherin nowadays was always risky business, particularly as a Hufflepuff female. But letting him searching for a book that she didn't need anymore?  
With a sigh Marianne stood up, picked up the book and made her way slowly over to the younger Black. With a hesitant hand she touched his shoulders and went wide eyed when he turned so fast that she nearly got whiplash and trained his wand onto her person. Frightened she looked into the face that resembled Sirius so much, but was a lot more guarded and serve looking.

Regulus relaxed slightly after he recognized his would be attacker as a small Hufflepuff that shared some of his classes with him. He nearly felt bad when he saw those giant blue grey eyes look frightened at him, but ruthlessly suppressed that feeling.

"What do you want?" he asked haughty while he took her in.

She stammered slightly and then held out the book he had been searching for the last two minutes. Annoyed he repeated himself tersely "What do you want?"

As an answer she just tilted her head and looked confused, Regulus nearly rolled his eyes at that.

"For the book." he clarified.

As an answer her eyes just became bigger. "Oh,… nothing really,… I just uh,… I thought that you would need it,… and I'm already finished."

And with that she pressed it in his arms and she hurried back to her table. Slightly disbelieving he looked after her, weird girl.

Puh, that had been nerve-racking, with a quick covert glance she saw how Regulus sat down 3 desks away from her and started with his homework. Relieved that he hadn't decided to hex her, she went back to her star chart while she compared the Black brothers in her mind.

Regulus finished relatively quickly with his homework, even if Potions had never been his best subject, relaxing slightly his gaze fell back onto the Hufflepuff girl.  
She had changed during the summer; he could remember that she had been a lot bigger beforehand. She was one of Slughorn's favored students and that was the only thing that he could remember about her, not even her name he could recall. Slightly frowning he thought that it was strange that he didn't know anything about her. He would have to make some subtle enquiries; it wouldn't do for him to not watch fellow gifted classmates. Especially now that his older brother had all but shoved the family duty on his shoulders with his escape to the Potters.

A few days later Regulus was stumped, Marianne Abbott was more than she seemed to be. Not only was she very good at brewing potions, a prodigy for sure, somebody who would someday contribute immensely to the Potions guild. But she also was gifted at writing it seemed, she was a children's book author and from what he heard from his fellow underclassmen, a quiet skilled one.  
But that wasn't what made him so interested in her, no Marianne Abbott, halfblood, shy Hufflepuff girl had seemed to have caught the attention of his older brother.

Normally he would dismiss her as another of Sirius conquests but this time it seemed different.  
Sirius still had on every finger a few dozen girls and could be found snogging them at any possible and impossible location, but something about the way he treated the Hufflepuff girl was strange. He didn't flirt with her overly so, no he seemed to be tempered by her presence and dare he say protective and tender while interacting with her?  
This demanded further investigation. Maybe, just maybe this little Hufflepuff girl was the key to shove the heir title back at Sirius.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

Only a week after the close call with Remus werewolf condition, the friendship between Snape and Lily shattered. It had begun innocently with a debate about one subject or another that quickly turned heated.  
That wasn't a strange sight in the library, the regulars were quite used to the sight of the Gryffindor and the Slytherin debating heatedly. To be honest Marianne couldn't quite remember everything that had been said but one thing had burned itself into her memory, the "stupid mudblood whore." echoed through the library. Snape seemed to have finally snapped and showed his true nature.

It was silent for all but a second before Ms. Pince bellowed through her halls "Mr. Snape, why I never! You can rest assured that your Head of House will here from this! You'll come with me this second, move it young man!"

And while she all but dragged Snape to the dungeons Lily burst into tears and ran out of the library. With two quick charms Marianne had her and Lily's stuff packed and she ran after the red haired Gryffindor.

Marianne found Lily crying in one of the smaller courtyards that weren't occupied at that time of the day. Tentatively Marianne sat beside the red head and offered her a tissue, she still carried them around after the nasty cold she had had the week before.  
Hiccupping Lily thanked her and pressed it against her face while her shoulders shook. Unsure what to do Marianne slowly stroked down her back and hummed a soothing melody until Lily had than moved closer to her so that Marianne could put her arms around her and hug her. They spent nearly half an hour like this before Lily had calmed down to a few single sobs.

The rumors about the fall out in the library had to have somehow spread throughout the whole castle in mere minutes, because ten minutes into comforting Lily, James and Sirius appeared out of the corner of her eye. Marianne had shaken her head and winked them away, Lily didn't need to be made even more upset. Reluctantly the two had retreated; thankfully those two had been the only ones to had found Marianne and Lily.

When Lily had finally composed herself enough she whispered a quiet "Thank you and no I don't want to talk about Snape."

Said Hufflepuff just smiled slightly and took her by the hand. Marianne led the two through some hidden passages that the Marauders had shown her to the kitchens.  
There the houseelves surrounded them in seconds and a minute later they had every possible and impossible comfort food in the world before them. Lily dug into the triple chocolate cake with vigor while Marianne filled their hot chocolates with whipped cream and put extra cocoa powder over it.  
She put the beverage right in front of Lily who sent her a slightly shaky smile as a thank you when she grabbed the drink and swallowed half of it before putting the mug back down.  
In commiseration Marianne also worked herself through the piles of sugary heaven. After they had tasted themselves through the different chocolate cakes and pastries they now attacked the more fruity desserts like candied apples, chocolate covered strawberries and cherries, apple pie and many more.  
Somehow between the chocolate soufflé and the chocolate pudding they had started rating the food. The houseelves were delighted in having willing guinea pigs and piled more and more food on the table until Marianne asked for something salty to counter balance the sweet stuff.

The two females spent the rest of the afternoon tasting themselves through the various foods until finally shortly before dinner they had to stop because they were in danger of bursting.

While the rest of the Hogwarts population was at dinner Lily and Marianne brought their stuff two their respective common rooms before they met up again at the West tower.  
This particular tower was a secluded place that few students knew about because of the out of the way entrance. Marianne had made a stop at the Den where she grabbed two stomach potions so that they wouldn't feel the consequences of their feeding feast.  
The two sat at first in amicable silence while they watched the sun going down before they started chatting about non consequential stuff. Marianne hadn't known Lily that good before, her continuing friendship with the Marauders had been an instant deterrent for Lily but it seemed that that was changing now.

Said red head now regretted that decision of shunning the younger Hufflepuff. She found Marianne to be a sensible if a bit shy girl, with a strong interest in Ancient Runes and Potions.  
Being a potion prodigy herself Lily enjoyed the debates about the newest potion discoveries and methods. Really Lily couldn't understand how such a sweet girl had befriended Sirius Black and then in turn the Marauders? Sitting there and contemplating that topic the question slipped out before she could change her mind.

"How can you tolerate Potter and Black?"

Marianne just smiled at that and looked down on her hands while she searched for the right words.

"They aren't that bad,… no listen to me, you shouldn't judge a book by its' cover. I know that Sirius is a playboy and prankster and that he can really overdo it sometimes,..."

Lily snorted "Sometimes?"

",… anyway, but he has also his good sides and those outweigh the bad ones. He is loyal like nobody else to his friends and believe it or not he is very protective and looks out for those that are important to him. Do you see this bracelet? That was his Christmas present for me, here feel it."

And with that she shoved it into Lily's personal space. The red head couldn't help but gasp, the protective capabilities of it where so strong that she could feel it radiating of the delicate silver bracelet. It was astonishing; somebody had spent a lot of time and power to make this.

",… you have to understand something. Sirius and James are prodigies, no don't interrupt me! They are prodigies with attentions spans of five year olds, if they aren't occupied they start to get stupid ideas. I have noticed this the moment I began schooling here and really in the last few years it has started to get better, you can't deny that. So yeah they use pranks and hexing to alleviate their boredom. They are under challenged, and unoccupied genius always spells trouble and here you have teo of them! The trick is to challenge them with something that they like. Like you for example, don't look that disbelieving. James really likes you and you being difficult just makes it even more interesting for him. I know that his advances are overbearing and annoying for you but he really just tries to impress you. You can't tell me that you have never entertained the thought of going out with James if he lost that childishness and grew up."

At this Lily looked annoyed but nodded grudgingly; Marianne couldn't help but smile at that. At least Lily didn't deny it vehemently and then chose her words carefully.

"I know this is asking for a lot but would you give him a chance? Just try to talk to him when Sirius, Remus and the rest of the Gryffindor common room aren't egging him on."

Lily had a stormy expression on her face and then diverted, "I can't believe how we came from experimental potions to dating James Potter in less than 10 minutes. It is already late; we should go back to our common rooms."

Marianne just nodded at that and also stood up. What Lily didn't seem to notice was that she hadn't denied giving James a chance, now she only had to have a heart to heart with said Marauder before he asked her out again.  
The two witches walked in amicably silence. At the corridor where their paths separated Lily brought Marianne into an impulsive hug and said in an earnest voice.

"Thank you, you made this horrible day a lot better and well okay I will think about what you said. But NO promises."

Marianne just nodded at that and whished Lily a good night before she skipped down to the Hufflepuff common room.

On the next day she intercepted the Marauders on their way to breakfast and expressively forbid them from addressing Lily about the topic Snape. She also pulled James to the side to gave him the rundown of the talk yesterday.  
The Quidditch captain looked like Christmas had come early and eagerly absorbed the pointers the younger girl gave him regarding Lily. Marianne hoped that he wouldn't forget them as soon as he caught a glimpse of the fiery red head.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

The weeks went by after the fallout between Lily and Snape. The Slytherin had tried to apologize nearly a week later after the incident, but had bitten onto granite by Lily.  
She had cursed up a storm and had abruptly left him standing in the hallway and that was the not so glorious end of their friendship.

With the exams coming closer Marianne became a nervous wreck. She even snapped a few times at Sirius and one time at James, though she apologized as soon as she had realized that. Both Marauders had just watched her amused and told her that they liked that she showed some fire, but did it have to be about exams?

With the begin of June the weather finally got better and a lot of the groups free time was spent outside doing this or that. They still tried to keep Marianne's presence as inconspicuous as possible and so had more often than not privacy and notice me not charms around the group.

On June the 12th Marianne noticed the strange behavior of her fellow Hufflepuffs as well as the Marauders, all of them seemed to have one big secret and didn't think to include her into it.  
Marianne pouted a bit over the fact but honestly she had other problems, after all she would have to pass her 4th year exams and she was more than nervous about that fact.

And so Marianne was completely taken by surprise when Lily led her into an empty classroom on the first level and all of her friends shouted "Happy Birthday" at her face.

She had completely forgotten that her new birthday was on the 12th of June instead of the 9th of July.  
After some good natured teasing about her forgetting her own birthday she was finally allowed at the big pile of presents that had been stacked on one of the tables.

From Lily, James, Remus, Peter and Alice she received a professional Potioneer case with the newest version of Potion Ingredient Encyclopedia over which she squealed and shouted. As a thanks each one of them received a hug, even Peter although Marianne had to forcefully suppress the disgusted shiver.

Her Hufflepuff friends Kate, Matthew and Angela had also pooled their money and gotten her a brand new Rune carving set, along with a book that listed the most handy Rune sequences. She couldn't help but sent them a grateful look. Those three had bore the brunt of her frustration about the self assigned Rune project.

Sirius was the last to hand over his present. Marianne couldn't be too sure but he looked a bit nervous before James gave him a shove in the back and he suddenly stood a bit too close. It left the blonde Hufflepuff slightly breathless, he looked absolutely edible with his slightly windswept hair.

When she opened the palm sized package she couldn't help but smile. Inside were charms for her bracelet. Fondly she looked at the silver chain on her wrist, since she had received it at Christmas she hadn't taken that particular gift off.  
Without another word she stretched her hand into Sirius direction to make him connect the new charms for her.  
While he did what she wanted him to do Marianne took a closer look at the charms. The first one was an intricate book and quill charm with very fine details, the next one was a key charm and the last two ones wear gemstone tear drops. One was an Aquamarine while the other was a grey Moonstone; both stones were nearly the exact eye color of both of them.  
Marianne's mind was reeling from the significance of this gesture and licked her bottom lip nervously while she tried not to read too much into Sirius present.

Said Black then gave her a rundown of the newest charms. The book charm would warn her from dark objects while the key charm was more of a homing in device. Its counterpart was Sirius earring and the two of them wouldn't have any problems at find the other anymore. Marianne had to smile at this, she could remember the incidents when both of them had searched for the respectively other and couldn't find them. In the background James snorted before Remus elbowed the Quidditch captain to shut him up.  
The gemstones would serve as magical reserves and would activate when the charms sensed high danger to increase the strength of the shield.

Marianne thanked Sirius for the thoughtful present with a fierce hug that took a bit longer than the other ones and after that there was cake from the kitchens.

Marianne spent the rest of the day on a Birthday high and nothing could dampen her mood, not even learning for the exams. The pleasant buzz that she had felt the whole day only seemed to increase when she shortly before dinner also received presents from her father and brother.

The following day Marianne was back in her exam mood which just provoked amused glances and exasperated sighs from the group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, but they let the topic drop for most of the time.

And then the exam week came around and nobody had any time or strength left to tease her about her nerves anymore.

After the last grueling practical exam had taken place Marianne relaxed for the first time in weeks and played some music for her friends and especially Lily who was relatively new to their group and had the same passion for music then herself.

Said Gryffindor prefect had started to become one of Marianne's closest friends since the library incident.  
Lily in turn had introduced her to her cycle of friends; especially the maternal Alice Springs, Frank Longbottoms girlfriend had taken to her.

True to her word Lily now tolerated the Marauders even if she still was huffy if James showed off too much. Marianne counted this a tremendous progress because you couldn't have everything all the time.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14:**

With the stress of the last months falling from her Marianne was suddenly hit by a few ideas of how to solve the problem that stopped her from completing her magical version of the ipod.  
Three days later she had finally worked out the last kinks of the multiple transferring charms on her Ancient Runes project and could now finally present it to her Professor.  
All the tears and frustration that she had felt in the last four months were oh so worth it when she demonstrated her finished project to a baffled Professor Gamp a day before her trip home.

The _auditio mobilis_, in short audmo, was half the size of Marianne's palm and about 3 mm thick. It had a modified protean charm inside the metal casing that was linked to the customer sheet. On which were the name of the customer as well as the songs he or she had paid for were listed.  
The customer sheet had a transferring charm to the information sheet, which would be given to the customer after purchasing the audmo. From this sheet the customer could chose which songs he wanted to listen to on his audmo. With a tip of his or her wand a second protean charm transferred the choices to the customer sheet which in turn transferred them to the audmo.

The audmo had a start, stop, fast forward, fast backward and a pause rune._  
_Above them was a paper sheet that functioned as display, it showed the name of the song and the Interpret. Said display was out of especially charmed paper that glowed in the dark and so made the script readable, it was also impervious against water or other fluids.  
Furthermore the audmo had a radio function that played the songs out loud while the ear function, two small discs on the back side of the audmo that could be detached, those were equipped with an automatic attaching charm so that they held onto the ears of the person. To regulate the volume a small rotating disk could be found under the display._  
_Into the casing were warming and cooling runes incorporated as well as an deleting sequence which would activate the moment it was opened without the correct procedure.  
To complete the audmo there was an automatic sticking charm attached to the whole casing, which could be turned off or on with a simple touch to two runes, to make it also useable to underage wizards and witches.  
The audmo like many other magical gadgets in the Wizarding world, siphoned ambient magic from its' environment.

The Professor had been absolutely fascinated by her project and gave her an instant O and a glowing recommendation for any future job applications.

Still high from the praise Marianne had spent the train ride between the compartments of the Marauders, her Hufflepuff colleagues and Lily and Alice's compartment. Flittering from one friend to another and babbling about the holidays, her friends watched this amused. They had never seen Marianne that playful and happy.  
Sirius used her affectionate mood to get in some serious snuggle time with her sitting between his feet while he slowly combed with one hand through her hair while the other had possessively encircled her waist. Remus and James just shot each other meaningful glances, they had a bet going on when Sirius would finally break down and ask Marianne out.

Said Hufflepuff just enjoyed spending the last few hours with her friends before returning to her family. The girls made arrangements to meet up during the summer holidays. While the boys, being James, Sirius and Remus would spend nearly a month in France with Mr. and Mrs. Potter they had agreed to meet up for buying their school supplies in August.  
Peter on the other hand had a big family reunion in Slovenia and wouldn't be in Britain for the majority of the holidays.

At the train station Marianne greeted her family enthusiastically with hugs and kisses, both Thomas and Michael were not sure what to think about the normally so shy girl showing affection in public.  
As soon as Marianne arrived at home she sat down with both her brother and father and told them about her Ancient Runes project and the grade she had received in advance before demonstrated her finished product and convinced or really sweet talked their father into patenting her invention right away for the next 30 years.  
The next morning her father accompanied her to the ministry where she had to fill out a few dozen sheets of paperwork before she was acknowledged as the patent holder of the audmo.

After finishing that process, Marianne relaxed a bit; the next step was to establish a company to produce the audmos'. While her father was still skeptical and didn't want her to invest in such a risky endeavor, Michael was all for it.  
The older Abbott sibling had seen the determination in Marianne's eyes and he would encourage and support his sister in her choices. He felt happy that she had finally started coming out of her shell.

The following day he brought the paperwork for establishing a new company with him from the ministry and sat down with Marianne to go through the legalities. It was possible to establish a company in her name, even if she was still underage, her family had a long enough history even if Marianne was a halfblood.  
The problem was she would need an adult wizard to act as a stand in until she was of age. At first Marianne wanted to ask Michael to be her stand in, but with his own job and responsibilities as heir to the family he would be unable to complete a satisfactory job. After going over the possibility of hiring somebody, Michael checked the specifics for the stand in again. It didn't specify the blood status of the stand in, staring out of the window he thought of a particular person who would be perfect for the job.  
He explained to his younger sister about a good school friend of his who was at the moment unemployed because of his muggleborn status and would be competent enough for the job.  
Delighted Marianne agreed to meet him and only an hour later Michael sent off an enquiry to Charles.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

The Abbott siblings met with the muggleborn Ravenclaw in a small café in the muggle word. This happened to prevent potential business rivals from overhearing their discussion.  
Charles McKennzy was a very talented wizard whose strengths lied especially in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. He had been prophesied a brilliant career after graduation from Hogwarts, but had only found a job with difficulty and only four months later he had been let go because a pureblood had wanted his job.  
Bitter and frustrated Charles had been working 3 menial jobs in the muggle world to keep himself from landing on the streets until the unexpected letter of Michael had reached him after his afternoon shift.

At the café Charles had been slightly surprised when he had been introduced to Michaels younger sister. He could vaguely remember a slightly pudgy and very shy child.  
This Marianne Abbott in comparison had lost quite a bit of her weight and while she still was a bit shy it was a tremendous improvement to when he had seen her last.  
After hearing the business proposal and checking out her prototype he started to see the witch in front of him with new eyes. What he held in his hands was a very tricky piece of rune and charm work that could potentially change the music industry in the Wizarding world and Marianne had only just turned 15.  
Throwing caution in the wind he agreed instantly to help her found a company to sell her product. They promised to meet again the following week after taking care of the paperwork and legalities at the ministry. Leaving the café with a positive sentiment Charles couldn't shake the feeling that things were majorly looking up for him.

In the next few days the muggleborn Ravenclaw thoroughly informed himself about the different prizes for metal in both the magical and the muggle world and finally found a cheap supplier in the muggle world. The company would even produce and deliver the completed chases, while the magical world only sold the raw materials.  
He also made discreet enquiries about former muggleborn students that he knew were handy with a wand, if this business took off like he hoped they would soon need any wand they could get their hands on.  
He also investigated their potential business partners, especially the different bands and singers and examined what brands they were using.  
To his surprise he found that there were no magical amplifiers in the Wizarding world, most bands used the sonorous charm. Which was quite often not only unreliable, but also damaged both voice and the instruments.  
Writing his ideas about changing that up and also what running a business would entail he prepared himself as well as he could for the second meeting with his hopefully future employer.

Marianne was this time alone, Michael and her father had to work and couldn't accompany her to the meeting. She was a little bit nervous but suppressed it; she had liked the calm and collected nature of Michael's friend. She had planned to have some tea to get to know the wizard better before inviting him to the Abbott house, where they could work out the formalities of their business deal and exactly that happened.  
Their meeting went well the only surprise was that Charles was a lot more prepared and informed about their endeavor then she herself. After telling him about the name she had decided to use for her company, MagicSound.  
They were going over the prices for the materials and founding costs that he had complied for the meeting. Marianne found that she easily could pay this with half of the money she had earned through selling her books.  
Charles would take care of acquiring materials and handling employing other wizards and witches while she would be the owner and holder of the patent as well as financial backing the company.  
While she had a veto right in bigger decisions, he would take care of the daily happenings during her time at Hogwarts. She also welcomed his idea about the magical amplifiers enthusiastically and wondered out loudly about creating other magical equipment and products for the music branch  
Shortly before her father and brother came home Charles signed the contract drawn up by the law firm of the Abbotts, as well as the Product confidentiality agreement before joining the family for dinner.

Thomas Abbott hadn't been happy about his daughter investing in such a precarious idea, but had kept silent after telling her this right at the beginning. He would not interfere with how his daughter used her rightfully earned money and if the business idea went awry she would have learned a valuable lesson. Now seeing the way Charles had given everything a careful thought and the way his daughter kept giving well thought out comments and suggestions he started to change his mind. Those two could really make this idea work and with a slightly better mood he watched the three younger ones as they talked about Marianne's project.

Michael submitted the documents for the new company in his sister's name the next day and it happened just like he had predicted. After the wizard being responsible for checking the paperwork had read the name in which the business was created and checked it against a list of Wizarding family names, he filed it quickly and without giving it another glance.

After starting up the business two weeks after the beginning of the summer holidays it took nearly the complete summer for the audmos to take off.  
It would have taken even longer if Marianne hadn't used a clever marketing trick.  
The magical amplifiers, which had been designed by a clever muggleborn witch with connections to the muggle music industry, were an instant hit with all magical bands in Britain and even Europe.  
After noticing this, Marianne started to give away one or two audmos as a free gift for the bigger orders.  
As a result famous bands were seen using the audmos and in the last three weeks of the summer holidays, young wizards and witches stormed the MagicSound shop to buy the new 'must have' in the Wizarding world.  
The audmos were sold for 10 galleons and came with 10 starter songs that the customer could chose from the shops selection. For every additional song they had to pay between 10 knuts and a sickle. The cost for the materials as well as production were 1 galleon and 11 sickles, including the patent for the magical songs. So they had a profit of 8 galleons and 16 sickles.

To produce recordings from the Wizarding bands, Charles had set up a meeting with Celestina Warbeck and other magical bands. Most of them agreed to them using their songs in exchange of 15% of the income per song they sold. Charles and his team of muggleborns recorded close to 70 songs on the metal blocks that would store the songs and keep them from deteriorating like runes on paper would have.  
And after the audmos started to take off there was a mad dash to be recorded by MagicSound.

After the first few long waits in the shop, Marianne's employees started connecting the sheets the moment the audmo had been finished and put them together in one box. From then on the employee in the shop opened the box, took out the customer sheet, wrote down the name and connected the first 10 chosen songs or more to the sheet. After that the songs turned up on the second sheet which was then showed to the customer and explained how to use it before he could take his audmo with him.

By the end of August they had been sold out again and had to increase their production again. The news about the audmo had finally reached the rest of Europe and people were fighting over international portkeys to be able to buy one.  
Charles took on even more unemployed muggleborns and halfbloods with the right credentials and at the 1st of September Marianne had nearly 20 fulltime employees and another 15 part time workers. All under contracts to prevent idea theft, this had catapulted MagicSound to one of the biggest companies in magical Britain.  
Before she left for school she asked Charles to buy hundreds of muggle music records. They could supplement the audmo selection with very cheap muggle music because they didn't have to buy the extra patent on those songs thanks to the corrupt government.  
Some of the purebloods had created loopholes to circumvent muggle patents which spared Charles from a lot of headache inducing meetings. She also gave him permission to work on improving the audmo and invent new magical gadgets.  
She wanted to establish a deluxe audmo to appeal to the purebloods and if they earned a fortune on the arrogance of the so called elite, the better for them. Charles and the rest of the muggleborns were very pleased with their "little boss". The quiet and shy girl was always unfailingly polite, never talked down to anybody of the company.  
During the holidays she visited every other day and dumped a handful of ideas at the research and development department to improve their products or supplied them with new product ideas. She had given them and many other muggleborns a future in the magical world with a steady and generous income and an interesting and fun job.

Although Marianne had been quite busy with the establishing of her company she had also enjoyed her holidays in the company of the two Gryffindor girls.  
The three of them had spent a good deal of their free time all over England, Lily and Alice who had already turned 17 in January and March respectively, took it onto themselves to apparate with Marianne all over Britain and visit the diverse magical and muggle attractions.  
They even spent a day bathing in the British Channel when the weather had been unbearable hot. Both Lily and Alice had been dubbed as good influences by the Abbott men and had a standing invitation to the Abbott residence.  
Especially Lily took advantage of this, having grown distant to her parents during her years in Hogwarts and with her older sister downright loathing her she took every chance to escape the tense atmosphere of her childhood home. This also led to the fact that she was nearly daily informed about the exploits of the Marauders across the Channel as well as somewhat involved with MagicSound. She had helped a lot in the design department and had earned some money and a free audmo as thanks. At first Lily wanted to refuse the money but Charles had convinced her to take it because while Marianne was the owner, he was the one paying and employing the workers at MagicSound.

Sirius and Marianne had continued the active correspondence that they had started during the Winter holidays, the letters were often accompanied by pictures on both sides. Most of the time it were pictures of this and that place the girls had visited or end result of a prank going haywire on the boys side.  
James especially liked the fact that Lily was in nearly every picture Marianne sent to them and seemed to enjoy herself. Sirius and Remus good naturedly complained about James when he had his 'Lily phases' as they called it, where he was absolutely useless for anything other than staring into the air.  
Thanks to the funny written letters and hilarious pictures Lily's animosity had slowly started to dwindle, until the Marauder's antics only evoked an eye roll and a long suffering sigh. Marianne wasn't sure if Lily tried to fight it but the quirking lips had turned over the course of two months into an amused smile and she was now looking forward to news from the Marauders as much as Marianne was, even if she sometimes still tried to deny it. But hey old habits die hard.  
The Marauders had been supportive right from the start of her company, their encouraging words had really helped Marianne to get over the frustration that they didn't sell at first. All three boys had already received their audmos and had been steadily adding songs per owl request.  
Marianne really like the idea of ordering songs per owl, after all not everybody wanted to run to the shop every time they wanted to add a new song. And so she forwarded the proposal to the idea apartment who promptly started to work on a solution so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed with the requests.

The Hogwarts students met up in the second to last August week to escape the other shoppers. The six were joined by Alice's boyfriend Frank who had returned from his trip to visit relatives in America. Peter was still with his family in Slovenia and wouldn't arrive until three days before school began.

While shopping Marianne didn't say anything about her business while being in public. She didn't want to have it spread all over the Wizarding world that it was her idea and company, thank you very much.  
Her friends understood her need for anonymity and talked about other topics.  
But when they passed the MagicSound shop and they saw the line in front of it James and Sirius couldn't help themselves and sent her teasing glances.

After finishing their shopping in record time they spent the rest of the day at Fortescue's recounting their holiday experiences. James had held himself admiringly back from boasting too much and was a complete gentleman to all the girls present.

This impressed Lily, who had given Marianne's theory of under challenged prodigies some serious thought and had decided to give James a chance. Now that she wasn't rejection him on every turn out of principle she noticed how attentive he was and how even the smallest reaction of her seemed to make him happy.  
Feeling slightly guilty about having been so stubborn and never giving the Quidditch captain a proper chance she decided to rectify this. After finishing their ice cream, the group wandered slowly down the street to the entrance of Crossing road, which led into the living area of the London community. The Abbotts lived there as well as the Springs'.  
Because Lily and James were the last ones of the group Lily saw her opportunity to talk to James without the others watching and suddenly grabbed his hand and led him into a smaller side street. James eyebrows rose into his hairline but resigned himself to a final and complete rejection.

"Well, aren't you going to ask me to go out with you?" Lily asked with an indefinable gaze.

James just sighed and said "You will just shoot me down again."

"Try me."

Looking at her confused he complied with her wish and asked earnestly "Will you go out with me Lily Evans?"

Lily smiled slightly while she said "Yes James I will."

Said Gryffindors eyes widened and looked slightly dazed while he stuttered "You,… you will?"

"One date, we will see how it goes from there." Lily said definite before she grabbed his arm again and led the stunned Potter heir back to their group.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16:**

While James mind still reeled from this unexpected outcome, his best friend was having troubles to concentrate. His gaze kept wandering to his little Hufflepuff that had had a growth spurt during the summer holidays. She was still short in comparison to him but her face had matured as well as her figure.

Dear Merlin he had to still his hands from wandering over her body. He had always liked to run his hands over a female figure during his escapades but he had never felt such a strong urge to create contact between him and another girl like he felt with Marianne.  
He swallowed and steeled himself, Marianne wasn't one of his conquests and he would keep his hands to himself and not cause her distress! At least that was what he was telling himself.  
His hands twitched again as she sent another one of those secret little smiles at him, Merlin! He had no idea how he would survive the next year without ravishing her she had just turned 15 in June while was going to be 18 in two weeks.

The new school year began and with it came his 18th Birthday. The Gryffindors had thrown him an enormous party on the first Friday after returning for the Marauders last year. The party on the 4th of September had lasted long into the morning, with copious amounts of alcohol and pastries from the kitchen. Under the party goers was also a certain blonde Hufflepuff, who had later landed in one of the female Gryffindor dorms because it had been too late or more like too early to go back.

In contrast his actual birthday had been a calm day; only his closest friends spent time with him and gave them their presents. He received a lot of pranking materials and also Quidditch equipment. From the girls there had been a giant Honeydukes package as well as the beginner guide of the Auror training.  
Marianne was the last to give him her present, inside the big package was a black muggle leather jacket that took his breath away. The buttery leather felt unbelievable soft and when he slipped into the jacket it fit him like a glove.  
Remus and James wolf whistled at him and gave thumbs up while the girls giggle and looked at him appreciative.  
Marianne came over to him and showed him the various pockets she had added as well as the rune sequences that were stitched over the inside of the material.  
Marianne had added the Runes against, wear, tear, cold weather, theft as well as some heavy duty protection and fortune Runes that would keep him safe.

The blonde Hufflepuff had seen the jacket on one of her trips to the coast of England and had instantly thought about Sirius. His birthday present had somehow become a small summer project for her.  
The happy twinkle in his eyes and the way he swooped her up into his arms made the long hours she had spent researching Runes and learning to stitch well worth it.

And so the start in the last year began with a lot of happiness for true Marauders.  
Peter on the other hand seemed to have finally completed his transformation into a human rat. His laugher was a lot squeakier than before and he seemed to be nervous all the time. Marianne had the suspicion that the cowardly Gryffindor had acquired a certain tattoo over the holidays. She decided that she would keep a close eye on the soon to be traitor.

Besides her school work Marianne had also make decisions concerning her company. McKennzy started to send Marianne bi monthly updates on the happenings.  
In the last September week his asked her for permission to buy a bankrupt magical publishing and printing company. Stating that it would be easier to take over an already existing company than found a new one, especially now that the purebloods took a closer look at Marianne's fast growing business.  
Charles had discovered that Marianne was also writing books in her free time and had decided to make it easier for her to publish them. That this also was an opportunity to branch out into another sector of the economy was of course also noted, and so White Publishing was renamed into MagicalWord only days later.

This take over let Marianne think about the audio books that had been common in her old world. She writes Charles about her idea and only a few days later she can listen to a prototype over her own audmo. Charles had taken Marianne's own book as the first recording because with that he didn't have to go through a lot of lawyers and agreements and just start with recording.  
Charles also told her how some of the more popular muggle books were already in process of being recorded and how he had begun to negotiate with the magical authors they published in MagicWord about bringing out audio book versions of their books.

The research and development department had also improved the way of payment and the information sheet.

The audmos came now with a small book instead of an information sheet.  
The book contained the bought songs in the first section, with at tip to the column you could arrange the songs after interpret, song, album, etc.  
In the second section there was an overview of the newest songs as well as a search option to search for certain songs, the search option had an automatic delete sequence incorporated, as soon the book was closed the search section was clear again to write into. If you decided to buy a song there was a small buy bottom on the right side that had to be tipped on to send off the order.  
The third and last section of the book contained the client information. The name, customer number as well as the balance of the audmo account. People now just sent a certain amount of money along with their name and customer number to the MagicSound company and the money they had sent would appear on the customer sheet. From this number was the amount for the song was subtracted. With this the customers were always aware how much money they had left on the account.  
It had become popular for parents to give their teenage children MagicSound gift certificates to further their music collections.

Marianne's anonymity lasted only until middle of October.  
She had already a bad feeling at that Saturday morning when she sat down between Kate and Marvin at the breakfast table. When the post came a sudden hush fell over the normally quite noisy Great Hall. Marianne glanced at the paper to see what had everybody so entranced and gasped horrified when she saw her photo on the front page.

Kate beside her looked at Marianne with giant eyes while said Hufflepuff grabbed the article and began to read.

_15 year old Hufflepuff behind Audmo phenomenon!_

_Yes you have read right my fellow witches and wizards! The just 15 year old Marianne Abbott is the genius inventor of the little gadget had has the whole Wizarding world in a frenzy. The second child of Lord Abbott had submitted for right of the patent only a day after finishing her fourth year at Hogwarts,…_

Marianne grimaced, great now everybody knew and would either hound her with questions are would want to take advantage of her.  
And just as she predicted the sound level suddenly exploded around her as everybody and their neighbor tried to ask her questions.  
The blonde Hufflepuff flinched and her heart began to beat uncomfortable fast in her ribcage everybody was looking at her and some were even trying to touch her! This was not good. Panicked and close to a panic attack she just sat their and stared at them with big eyes while she helplessly searched for an escape.

Suddenly Kate grabbed her arm and forced her way through the crowd and as fast away from the table as possible. They reached the entrance hall and now were close to running, on floor up and two corridors down they finally stopped to get some air.

The blonde Hufflepuff leaned against the wall and let out a relieved sigh while Kate braced her hands against her knees while she gasped for air.

After a few moments of silence Marianne finally broke it, "Thank you." she said heartfelt to her fellow Hufflepuff, Kate's fast reaction had given her time to handle the situation and think of ways to diffuse it.

"Merlin, this was madness out there! No wonder you kept quiet about your invention. They are worse than a pack of werewolves!" the other girl stated while she shook her head in disbelieve.

"Thank you for understanding. This is such a mess; I would like to know how they have found out about it. Everybody in the company knows to keep quiet about me." The younger Abbott now contemplated.

As an answer Kate just snorted, "Please, you had to file the paperwork at the Ministry didn't you? It wouldn't be too hard for a reporter to access the info with the right bribe."

Marianne sighed and just sadly shook her head, of course. The stupid Ministry always messed things up.

"Should we try to get back to the common room?" the Macmillan asked tentatively and slightly unconvinced herself. The common room would also be full of over eager students that wanted to know as much as possible.

Marianne just shook her head, "Thanks but I will stay outside the common room a little bit longer. I've got a place where I can hide,… Please don't take that personally but this location is rather personal to me,…"

"I understand. I will see you later in the dorm room?" the other witch just said with a slight smile.

Relieved Marianne nodded and they parted ways.  
Determined the younger Abbott made her way through the halls to the Den. She had to avoid two excited groups of students before she finally reached the abandoned classroom.

Inside she found Sirius already waiting. Beside him on the table sat a plate with pastries along with what looked like hot chocolate.  
The blonde witch sighed contently while she sat down beside the older Gryffindor and reached for a chocolate éclair. After the first few bites she relaxed willingly into Sirius arms and let him play with her hair and snuggle with her on the coach.

Their relationship had changed a lot in the last months, ever since last Christmas they had become more and more affectionate with each other. It made her very happy that she seemed to be important to him. Sure, Sirius dated and had flings with girls but they neither lasted those long nor was he as affectionate with them as he was with her.  
Marianne had to admit that she felt jealous whenever she saw those girls with him, but had resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't what Sirius wanted in a girlfriend or lover. And so she just took what he would give her.

They stayed like this for close to an hour until Sirius slightly winced, the position on the short couch didn't do anything for his back and if he wouldn't move soon he would regret it in the morning. Unsure what to do he stroked over Marianne's right cheek and chin.  
Said witch had recognized how uncomfortable Sirius had been and tried to get up. This just provoked a displeased grumble from the dog animagus. Marianne just shook her head amused and pulled on Sirius hand so that he would get up too from the couch.

Without another word she led him to the bedroom and climbed into the bed after getting rid of her shoes. To be honest Marianne wasn't sure what was bigger her fear that Sirius would reject this idea or the curiosity of what said Black heir would do now.

While occupied with her shoes Marianne missed the way Sirius gulped and his eyes widened for a second. When she was finally finished and climbed into bed he had to think disgusting thoughts to keep himself from getting hard. Didn't she know what she was doing to him? … Right, of course she didn't know.  
With a last prayer up to the deities Sirius followed Marianne's example and climbed in behind her. Inside he begged his body to not betray him while he was in bed with Marianne.

Marianne soon fell asleep with the warmth surrounding her and that stressful morning behind her and slept through lunch. In the afternoon Sirius sneaked the two of them dinner and they had spent the rest of the day lazing around and Marianne composing letters to her family and Charles about the happenings, she hoped they could give her some advice to work through this situation.

The rest of the weekend was either spent with Lily and the Marauders or in the female Hufflepuff dorm room. Her roommates had been placated and warned my Kate to give her some space and after she had answered some of their questions they calmed down and things returned more or less to normal.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17:**

Her answers had been spread across the castle within the first 24 hours and a big percentage of the population contented itself with just staring and whispering about her. Which she was glad for.  
The small percentage that didn't was what caused her distress in the following weeks although she tried to not let it bother her.

She was suddenly in high demand to become friends with. Students were approaching her at all times to either suck up to her, intimidate or entice her with their own standing in society.  
Frankly the thing that most scared her was the way boys were fighting each other for a chance to woo her. Some were more subtle than others and some took it too far.  
Hell somebody had sent her chocolates laced with a love potion, if she didn't have worn Sirius' bracelet she would surely eaten the chocolate!

Sirius himself was unbearable, since the first boy had asked her out his mood had become steadily worse until it had reached rock bottom when he had heard about the love potion incident.  
He had confiscated the chocolates and the next day Julian Smith had mysteriously landed in the hospital wing when Sirius had taken a training duel too far in class. Smith, who had been one of her most determined suitors, had taken to completely avoiding her.

The stress kept Marianne from sleeping and she fell back to chocolate to calm down her nerves which lead inevitable to weight gain again, at least it wasn't that much this time.

The situation at Hogwarts had gotten steadily worse after it had seemed to get better in the first few days. Two follow up articles had ignited the curiosity and sensationalism even further when the student body realized just how successful her company was.

The audmo had catapulted her to being the richest underage witch in Great Britain that had accumulated her fortune by own means, hell she was the richest underage witch in the WORLD that had accumulated her fortune on her own.

She was receiving letters from complete strangers nearly every day and her father had already had to refuse 24 wedding proposals in her name.  
Honestly her father and brother weren't faring any better. Being related to her had thrust them right into the spotlight alongside Marianne. Michael had informed her about how he and his long-term girlfriend and now fiancée Cornelia Higgins had a few fights because witches were throwing themselves at him left and right and from what he had implied her father wasn't faring any better.

To appease Cornelia, who normally was a kind and collected witch, they had decided to finally fixate their wedding date on the 8th of July the following year. Both were happy with the time frame and the Higgins family had finally lost the rest of their trepidations against the marriage of Michael and Cornelia, which Marianne was thankful for.

On the other hand the increased publicity for their company had increased their popularity even more. Charles was now seriously considering branching out into Europe and then into the rest of the magical communities around the globe. Band managers around the world were asking for them to record the songs of their clients and Charles was working overtime to accommodate and book all those additional magical musicians into a workable timetable.  
Marianne would have to get Charles something really nice for Christmas; his enthusiastic initiative had made this happen and kept the company going.

Back at Hogwarts the harassment had finally reached it's all time high, the Hufflepuffs couldn't shield Marianne efficiently anymore and the Gryffindors that had started to help them couldn't either and so on a Thursday during lunch Marianne finally snapped.

She was suddenly hyperventilating and bursting into tears while she slowly sank to the floor. The students around her increased the sound level once more and effectively made her even more upset. But before it could get worse Sirius was suddenly above her and shielding her from the curious stares around her.

With a quick maneuver he had her in his arms and started to push through the crowd. Marianne was vaguely aware that James and Remus came from behind them, overtook the pair and started to push people out of the way.

In the meantime the blonde's witch sole focus was on the warm body carrying her and the calming smell of Sirius' aftershave.  
Tears were still running down her cheeks but at least she wasn't shaking as strongly as she had before, her arms were locked behind Sirius' neck and her face was buried in the hole between his neck and shoulder.

On their way to the hospital wing, Marianne became aware that her head of house, Prof. Sprout had found her way to them and was on the left side of Sirius while she asked Lily and Kate about what had happened. Remus and James were still keeping students at bay that met them in the hallways.

When they finally reached the hospital wing Madame Pomfrey was instantly at their side and directed Sirius to set Marianne down on of the beds that would give her more privacy than the rest of the room.

"Thank you for bringing her here, now out Mr. Black." Madame Pomfrey said firmly.

Sirius face set into a stubborn mask but he then slowly moved his hands away from the younger girl. This had the instant reaction of her increasing her hold onto him and letting out a tiny whimper before shaking her head.

The patron of the Hogwarts wing just sighed and gave in, but then turned to the rest of the students and stated firmly "Out you lot, Mr. Black may be allowed to stay, but you certainly aren't."

The four students left reluctantly the room while Mme. Pomfrey took out a small vial of one of her cupboards and made Marianne swallow it.

While the healer had searched for the potion Sirius had changed their positions ignoring the protests of Prof. Sprout. He now too sat on the bed and had moved as far back as he could before placing the blonde girl sideways between his legs and surrounding her with his arms.  
Said witch had nearly melted against him with both arms between herself and his chest and her head against the hollow of his neck.

After drinking the potion, which she recognizing as calming draught, Marianne's racing heart started to slow down and her breathing evened out, she relaxed even more and became slightly sleepy.

Sirius kept his focus the whole time of the younger girl in his arms, when she finally relaxed completely against him he looked up again.  
Said Black heir nearly startled, in the time he had been occupied with Marianne the headmaster had entered the room and was now watching the two of them with unreadable eyes. Professor Sprout looked slightly angry why Mme. Pomfrey only sighed.

The 5th year Hufflepuff in Sirius arms finally was aware enough again to recognize that they weren't alone and looked inquiring, if not a bit embarrassed at the faculty members.

"Miss Abbott, may I ask what caused this reaction in the Great Hall?" the gentle but firm tone from Professor Dumbledore cut through the slightly awkward silence.

"I… ever since the article two weeks ago the other students have kept crowding me and trying to gain my friendship. Some of the boys have also tried to pressure me into becoming their girlfriend, by all means necessary… I also received marriage proposal from wizards I have never heard of and they are all at least two to three times my age." Marianne stated in a small voice.

This had the instant reaction of the two older females becoming enraged; Professor Sprout was just in the process of starting a triad when Marianne continued.

"…, I … I'm not used to all this attention, it makes me uncomfortable and I have barely slept since those articles came out. I think today was just the stress of the last two weeks accumulating until I couldn't take it anymore."

The last part was said with silent tears running down her face, Sirius had let his chin dropped onto her head while she talked and was slowly moving his hands up and down her arms.

"Thank you for being so honest Miss Abbott. I will certainly talk to the student body about their deplorable behavior. They really shouldn't try to take advantage of you just because you have the fortune of an ingenious mind."

Marianne was slightly confused, the headmaster was rarely so serious while he talked to a student and the last sentence seemed to be directed at Sirius more than her.

Said young man frowned at the so revered headmaster and looked slightly hurt to the teachers.

Marianne then suddenly understood that Prof. Dumbledore seemed to be of the opinion that Sirius was one of the students that tired to take advantage of her. To clear the misunderstanding she spoke up again.

"Professor Dumbledore I think you misunderstand Sirius and my relationship. He has been a good friend of mine since the year before. We have been friends since he caught me playing the guitar and to be honest he is also partly responsible for my idea of the audmo. We have kept our friendship a secret so that nobody would try to get to Sirius through me. In truth I spent a lot of time in the Gryffindor common room with the Marauders and Lily Evans. The other Gryffindors have been keeping it silent because I'm 2 years younger and absolutely hate confrontations and duels."

The eyes of all three faculty members became slightly bigger at Marianne's explanation but then relaxed and the slightly tense atmosphere vanished.

Dumbledore's eyes began to twinkle and he meant to Sirius. "It seems as if I owe you an apology Mr. Black, I hope you forgive me."

"It's fine Professor, really. I'm just glad Marianne is better now after she told you what has been happening although she left some of the incidents out. She has been receiving chocolates and other objects laced with love potions and the attempts are getting sneakier every time. James, Remus and me have started screening her mail for her, but that really shouldn't be necessary."

Now Dumbledore's eyes went suddenly cold "Love potions you say? Miss Abbott this is a grave offensive. I will have to inform the DMLE about this, after all you are not only underage but also a ward of this school."

Marianne just nodded slightly, she felt uncomfortable about the whole thing, it was embarrassing enough to tell the Marauders and Lily but now she would have to tell the Aurors too.

Sirius seemed to sense her discomfort and brought her even closer to him, his smell and warmth lulled her back into a relaxed state and she was close to fall asleep when both Dumbledore and Sprout left the hospital wing to write letters to the Abbotts and the DMLE respectively.

Marianne was let go only 10 minutes later after Mme. Pomfrey had checked her vitals. The blonde Hufflepuff spent the rest of the day in the Gryffindor common room, joined by the Marauders, Lily and Kate who had been accompanying the Marauders since they had left the hospital wing.

And really that evening during dinner Dumbledore addressed the student body about their behavior and guilt tripped them enough that Marianne received a couple of dozen apologies on her way to bed and even more by post.

The next day she gave her statement to the female Auror that the DMLE sent in presence of her father who had been absolutely furious about hearing of the Love Potions.

Marianne's break down had the side effect of changing her relationship with Sirius Black once again. The witch couldn't really put a finger on it but somehow there was a tension between the two of them. It was not an uncomfortable one but more like they were always aware of the other one if he or she was in vicinity. It was like an electrical current that ran through them and gave them jolts whenever they touched or sat close.

Their friends were exasperated about their behavior and James finally broke down one evening and told Sirius plainly that their cat and mouse game was going on everyone's nerve and he should finally ask Marianne out.

This was the reason why when they met up on the following Saturday at the Den Sirius couldn't stop but stare at Marianne while she worked through her homework.

Aware of his undivided attention the 15 year old girl finally sat her homework aside and asked the 18 year old curiously "Sirius, is everything alright?"

Said man nodded before he scooted closer and put his warm hands on Marianne's face and shoulder and said in a barely audible voice "I'm going to kiss you,.."

Marianne swallowed, oh boy, ever since the hospital wing incident she had hoped this was going to happen and so she just whispered. "I know,..."

The normal so confident wizard was completely out of his depth and so his voice turned slightly hoarse while he continued.

"It will change everything, you know that don't you?"

"Yes,…" she trailed off while she looked at his full lips and saw his Adams apple bounce up and down.

Sirius saw her eyes wandering down his face and further and he couldn't hold back anymore. With a strangled "Ah hell" he moved forward.

Suddenly Sirius' lips were on hers, warm slightly wet and a little bit chapped and than his mouth opened a bit and hers followed. He dipped his head and than he was sucking on Marianne's bottom lip, slowly and very sensuous.

It felt unbelievable, Marianne was kissing Sirius Black! The wet dream of many fanfiction readers and writers was kissing her and pressing her body against his muscled one.  
His hands found her hips and with them her love handles. The blonde girl expected him to back away and be disgusted by the extra weight that she had put on over the stressful last weeks, but Sirius just groaned and trailed alongside them to the front of her stomach, there he stroked her soft belly once and then grabbed her hips once again to pull her sideways onto his lap.

He left her lips and his mouth trailed from her chin down her neck until he stopped where her neck met her shoulders. He buried his face into her collarbone and groaned while he inhaled. Marianne moaned as an answer, her neck had always been very sensitive and Sirius just found the right spots that made her shiver in delight.

The two stayed like this for a while during which Sirius softly traced her back up and down. She hhmed contently and then cautiously put her hands into his hair. The wild locks were soft and shined hazelnut brown in this light, while normally they were more blackish.  
Sirius smelled like coffee, smoke and something musky, it made the Hufflepuff's head spin. She would have been contend to stay like this forever until he lifted his head again and pressed those sinful warm lips onto hers and slipped her some tongue.

Oh Merlin and Morgana that boy, no man could kiss! In her other life she had the misfortune of going out with men that either couldn't kiss or were total assholes that you would never consider to waste a second date on.  
But this, this felt so right, it was warm and gentle and he smelled so good. A shiver after the other was trailing down the back of this virgin body. Somehow, she could honestly not say how, she was suddenly stretched out on the sofa they had been sitting on with Sirius above her and trailing slow kisses down her accessible upper body until he encountered her white shirt.

The material somehow ripped him from his trance. He looked up into her eyes, burning that ravished look of the pretty Hufflepuff into his mind. His eyes nearly went black, his pupils were blown out and he planted another firm kiss on her mouth before he grabbed her and moved the Hufflepuff until he was stretched out on the couch and Marianne was lying on top of him.  
He began to play with her hair while he asked in that slightly rough voice that sent delightful shivers down the bodies of most of the female population of Hogwarts.

"Will you go out with me? No scratch that, will you be my girlfriend, mine?" he ended his question with a soft kiss to her head.

"Yes" she answered breathlessly.

Marianne couldn't believe her luck, Sirius Black, Hogwarts playboy extraordinaire, her best friend wanted her as girlfriend. For nearly a year she had pinned after him, always in the knowledge that he just saw his private musician and in the last half year maybe a friend in her.  
In this moment she felt happy like she had never felt in her old life. Now she only had to ensure that this new found happiness wasn't destroyed by Voldemort.

A little while later Sirius pulled her up to his face to kiss her again while simultaneously he stroked her back and hips and then weaseled his hands under her blouse. Marianne stiffened a little bit before she relaxed into his touch.

Sirius, having noticed that, softly tried to reassure her. "It's okay, you decide how fast we are going, you are a virgin aren't you?"

Turning pink Marianne nodded shyly into his neck, at least in this body she was one.

Sirius inhaled deeply again and then said in a slightly trembling voice. "That's… that's fine, as I said you control the tempo, just tell me if I'm going too far."

She was a virgin, of course he had suspected this, but to get it confirmed from her was an entirely different matter. Nobody had touched her before him. He would be her first,… and her last if he had anything to say about it.

She was warm, soft, shy and absolutely spell bounding to him, she was everything he didn't even know he was looking for. The thought that she was his was absolutely intoxicating.  
Merlin and the way she reacted to his touch, the slow caressing of her back and sides sent Goosebumps down her body. Hell he could also feel her nipples harden and he had to control himself not to throw her on her back and take her then there. Morgana be damned this was torture for him. He distracted himself with taking one hand from under her blouse and stroking her hair.

She had lovely hair, honey gold and soft, and today it smelt like almond, hhm. He moved her head a bit to reach her forehead and planted soft childish kisses on it, which made her giggle.  
The urgent need from before had thankfully simmered down to nearly nothing and now he only had the desire to hold her and keep her close. Sighing he removed the second hand from under her blouse and engulfed his little siren in his arms.

The change between the two was barely discernible for causal eyes; their friends in contrast knew immediately that something had happened as soon as they saw them again. Marianne's smile was bigger than ever and she had a happy shine in her eyes. It was only underlined by her cheerful babblings about this or that topic.

Sirius in contrast was a lot quieter than normal and unusually distracted. His gaze was almost always fixed on the blonde witch as she flitted in and out between their friends. He was only half heartily contributing to the conversation about future pranks until James waved his hand in front of his best friend grinningly. James sent Sirius a knowing look before exchanging pointed smirks with Remus, who just shook his head amused.

Who would have thought, Sirius Black, playboy extraordinaire, would fall in love with a shy little Hufflepuff.

Oh how the mighty had fallen.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18:**

Sirius' sudden vehement refusal of willing bed partners and the fact that he even stopped the more or less innocent flirting had caused an outcry in the female population of Hogwarts.  
Wild rumors about how he had been black mailed into one thing or another ran rampage in the Hogwarts halls. Some of their class mates had even the courage to ask the grey eyed Marauder directly about this sudden change of M.O, but no matter what they said he remained stubbornly silent.

Even the teachers had been concerned for a while about this strange behavior until they realized that it couldn't be so bad because the Marauders around Sirius wouldn't act so relaxed and dare they say content if there had been a true cause of concern.

A few days later the mystery that had been bugging their minds was solved when Professor Flitwick caught sight of the older Black kissing a giggling Marianne Abbotts hands in a secluded alcove of one of the courtyards.

Flitwick had only been able to catch a glimpse of this scene because he had forgotten one of his books in his classroom and had to turn around.  
As reaction to this news some of the female teachers, especially Prof. Sprout and McGonagall, had been concerned about the younger girl. Their fears were thankfully soon alleviated when they took notice of similar scenes all over Hogwarts. Those were very well hidden from the Hogwarts students but if you knew what to look for you could witness the nearly sickenly sweet display of covert and subtle affections between Hogwarts playboy number one and the shy Hufflepuff girl.  
The rest of the teachers fears were buried when they caught sight of Sirius Black's besotted face when he thought he believed himself unobserved.

Dumbledore couldn't help but chuckle while watching the most unlikely romance in Hogwarts happening and mumble over young love and how even the most stubborn seemed to succumb to its' power.

A month later Marianne found herself being approached by Sirius' younger brother, Regulus in the library.  
It had been a Wednesday and she was knee deep in her course work, and frantically searching for a book in the Transfiguration section when suddenly the dark haired boy stood behind her and asked her in a polite and calm voice to follow him.  
Although Marianne should have probably refused, her inherent curiosity got the better of her and she followed him to a hidden table in the shadows.

Regulus had to hold back a chuckle; she was just like a kitten. Big eyed, bushy tailed and unable to resist a well placed bait.

She was pretty, the vulnerable and sweet type.  
Innerly he shook his head, he really hadn't expected such traits to catch his brother's attention, but oh well. Critically he appraised her while she sat down uninvited in front of him and asked what he wanted.

Huh, interesting, she seemed to have a blunt and courageous side on her, maybe she could be molded into a Lady Black, with the right instructions of course.  
Reminding himself of his reasons for addressing the coeval girl Regulus started to tell her about how he had kept an eye on her since she started to hang out with his brother last year. And how he had come to the conclusion that she was the best way to convince his brother of something.

The younger Abbott sibling turned cautious at that. She knew that Regulus had later defected to the light side shortly before his death, but at the moment she couldn't be sure about his true intentions regarding his brother, although she suspected that Regulus did not mean any harm to Sirius.

What he told her next blew her out of the water.  
Their father, Orion Black was terminally ill in St. Mungos and wasn't expected to survive the next month. He further told her that their mother, Walburga was of the opinion that Sirius didn't deserve to be informed or visit him one last time and that Orion was too proud to ask his son for a last visit.

Distraught and enraged Marianne's thoughts raced to find a way to make a last meeting happen when Regulus unexpectedly came to her rescue with the nonchalant statement about how Mrs. Black wouldn't be able to visit her husband the coming Saturday because she had been invited to tea at the Malfoys.

Regulus continued to stare at Marianne for another moment before he elegantly stood up and made his way out of the library, he had done everything in his power, now it was in her hands what would happen next. Privately he hoped she would be able to pull this off and succeed in her first challenge as the potential future Lady Black.

Regulus left Marianne in an inner tumult, she knew from the talks with Sirius that he and his father didn't see eye to eye but that their relationship was a good deal better than the one with his mother.  
She was determined to give him the chance to see his father once more, even if only to say goodbye. Thankfully the coming weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend and it would be relatively easy two sneak away from the supervising teachers and apparate to London.

Nodding to herself Marianne made her way to the Gryffindor common room and convinced Sirius to cancel all his plans for the coming Saturday, to the question of why she just stated that it was important.

When the weekend finally arrived Marianne put on her best robe and nervously checked her hair one last time. Pulling together all her courage she met Sirius at the entrance of the castle and together they made their way down into the village.  
Once there she dragged him into a small side street before making him apparate the two of them to London.

After a slightly charring trip Marianne finally explained to the more and more confused and slightly nervous Sirius, where they were going.

"We are going to St. Mungos."

"Wha-what? Why that? Marianne are you alright?" with that sentence he was suddenly in front of her and held her face in his hands. His eyes were wide while he seemed to search for any signs of her feeling unwell.

"Calm down, it's not me, Sirius your father is there,…" she sighed while she gently caressed his arms.

Sirius looked stunned before his face went cloudy and he said in a stubborn tone of voice, "And?"

Marianne just sighed and took his hand in hers before she continued, "Regulus informed me two days ago that it doesn't look good, he caught a rare kind of Dragon Pox and the healers don't expect him to survive the month,…"

Sirius came to an abrupt halt at that this news, his eyes were impossible wide "What? Why wasn't I informed sooner?"

"From what Regulus told me, your mother didn't think you had the right after running away. She is occupied today with the Malfoys,…"

"That old b-witch,…" Sirius closed his eyes while a pained expression flitted over his face; then took Marianne's into his before they entered the hospital.

A quick enquiry at the front desk told them where they could find Orion Black. The closer they came to his room, the more Marianne felt Sirius become agitated. To calm him down she planted a quick kiss on the underside of his chin before knocking on the door. A serve voice called them in.

The meeting with Sirius father went better than Marianne had expected. It had also been far more embarrassing for her than she could have imagined.

It began with a rocky start; both father and son greeted each other stiffly and then fell into a tense silence. To dissolve the tension Marianne started to chatter about non consequential stuff while still remaining as polite as she could.

This had provoked an unexpected reaction; instead of disapproving of her behavior Orion quirked a sardonic smile and seemed amused by her antics. He then unbalanced her completely with one well placed question about what she was to his son.  
Marianne reacted with turning red and wide eyed and began to stutter while she searched for a satisfying answer. How do you introduce yourself as the secret girlfriend of the son of the terminate ill patient?

She was more or less saved by Sirius. Said Gryffindor had simply stepped up behind her, put his arms around her and then declared in front of his father that she was the woman that he would marry.

IN FRONT OF HIS FATHER! … and was that a roundabout marriage proposal?

Orion gaze had turned hard and appraising at that statement, before he started to drill Marianne about her family. The moment the questioning began Marianne felt Sirius tense behind her but a quick glance up and a squeeze of his arm had calmed him down again. This was probably the last time he saw his father, she wouldn't let him later regret destroying this chance because his temper ran amok with him.

She had answered the elder Black's questions as calmly and neutral as she could. During their conversation it must have dawned Orion that she was the owner of MagicSound and MagicWord, the new rising corporation that had already reached a high prestige value in spite of the fact the company was less than a year old.

After he stopped interrogating the young girl in front of him, Sirius father turned pensive while he watched Marianne and his son. Sirius had looked absolutely furious while he had pelted the blonde witch with questions but had kept his mouth shut after the reassuring gesture of the small Abbott.  
Orion acknowledged the effect she had on his son and found it very interesting. He had never seen anybody able to calm Sirius down when he was this close to exploding, not even James Potter. Mulling over the information he had just received, Orion's gaze landed back at Marianne Abbott.  
Sirius fiancée, because that was what she was even if Sirius hadn't officially asked for her hand yet. After all Sirius was a Black, even though he liked to deny this fact, and Blacks always got what they wanted, especially his bullheaded son.

Sighing inwardly Orion despaired; really his oldest son would have been the perfect heir for the title if there weren't those damnable faults that he didn't seem to be able to get rid of.  
Sirius was charismatic, good looking, magically powerful and knew how to manipulate a crowd in his favor. His eldest son was a natural leader there was no denying it.  
On the other side he was too outspoken, brash, impatient, had the attention span of a poodle and was stubborn. Dear Merlin was he stubborn! Although Orion had to admit that his negative qualities had started to recede in the last few years and he had felt cautiously optimistic that Sirius would turn around from his desire to leave their family. Now that he was honest with himself, Orion would have even tolerated his more muggleborn and light orientated decisions as long as he didn't shame the family and acted in their best interest.

Oh well this hope had been shot to hell when Walburga had in one of her triads about pureblood supremacy overdone it, which had consequently led to Sirius' break with the family. Looking back on his life Orion regretted to not have intervened more in the education of his sons and not curbed the fits of lunacy of his wife. Walburga had always only lashed out at her oldest son, who ironically enough had inherited his volatile temper from her.  
The temperament of the Blacks had always been their biggest vice, Orion thought ruefully while his thoughts turned back to Sirius' girl.

Marianne Abbott seemed to be able to curb the infamous Black temper and keep Sirius from making hasty decisions. Maybe, just maybe Sirius could make a decent Lord Black with her help.  
He hoped this for Regulus sake, his younger son had always struggled with the qualities that came so easily to Sirius, his younger son had always been more of an academic than leader.  
Making a split decision he turned his attention back to the pair that was waiting for his verdict.

"For once it seems like you have chosen well Sirius, I approve of your choice." he said with an even voice while he watched his son.

It seemed that he had chosen his words wrong because in Sirius' eyes was an unholy gleam and he seemed to bristle, but before he could say anything and destroy their presumably last meeting Marianne turned around and grabbed his hands into his before beaming up at him.  
The change was instantly and so abruptly that Orion thought Sirius had been hit with a curse. His features became soft and a small indulging smile grazed his oldest son's face, his shoulders relaxed and he pulled the younger girl even closer. Marianne than turned back to Orion and thanked him for his approval.

The aged man couldn't help but return that smile, relaxing back into his bed. Sirius would be fine as long as he had the little Abbott at his side, the Black scion thought. The way the two looked at each other had reminded him of his grandparents Sirius Black the second and Hesper Gamp. It may have been an arranged marriage but the two had loved each other so much that when his grandmother had died his grandfather had followed her only a week later after bringing the family affairs in order.  
Secretly he was glad about this fact; he had only ever wanted what was best for his sons, even if he didn't show his affections openly.

Marianne and Sirius returned an hour before they had to be back at the castle in Hogsmeade. A quick stop at Honeydukes and Scrivenshafts supplied them with sweets, quills and parchment for the coming weeks, before they made their way up to the castle. On her way to dinner Marianne caught the gaze of Regulus and with a subtle nod and a quick smile she insinuated to him that the visit had gone fine.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19:**

Said Slytherin was now more than curious how the meeting had gone. Making up his mind he quickly penned a note to his grandfather and sent his eagle owl Onyx on his way.  
The next day he flooed through the fireplace of professor Slughorn to the Black family home. He had received a special permission from his head of house to return to his home for the day. At Grimmauld's Place he quickly greeted his mother before he joined his grandfather in his study.  
There he gave his family head a rundown of his encounters with Marianne Abbott and the information that he had gathered concerning her and Sirius' relationship, as well as his thoughts for what this could mean for the Black succession.  
The unreadable and silent gaze of Arcturus Black didn't bother him too much; Regulus had become used to them throughout his childhood. After he had ended with his report the two made their way to St. Mungo's to visit Orion.

The following discussion let Regulus look slightly more optimistic into the future.  
Orion had finally had closure with his eldest son and furthermore seemed content and even happy about Sirius' choice. He gave the two other Black's a detailed account of what happened the day before and then surprised Regulus with letting out a slight chuckle.

"They remind me a lot of grandfather and grandmother." Orion told his father.

Said man's eyes became a strange light to them before he quirked his lips and sent an acknowledging nod into Orion's direction.

"You two think that the little Abbott will bring Sirius back onto the right path?" Arcturus asked. As answer both Regulus and Orion nodded. Arcturus sighed, it soundly nearly relieved. "Very well. Then I will change the succession again, Sirius will be reinstated as the Black scion. Walburga will be unable to do anything about this as soon as I have registered the will with the goblins. Regulus I trust that you will keep us updated about the Abbott situation. I also expect that you will start to teach her what she will have to know as the Lady Black as well as family oriented etiquette." than he looked at his son and sighed. "I'm sorry to say this Orion but I don't trust your wife with this task."

"You don't have to tell me. Her fits of insanity have been increasing in the last years. I fear that she has also infected the houseelf with her harebrained ideas. Regulus I have set aside two vaults, one for you and one for Sirius, those contain my personal earned money, those are for emergency situations. I don't trust your mother to not thrust you into a difficult situation with this new dark Lord on the rise, so be careful and watch your back."

Regulus could just nod and swallow hard, his mother would make his life difficult after his father's death, and he only hoped that he would escape the situation unscathed.

"I will watch over both of your sons as much as I can, but should she drag Regulus to one of those initiation meetings I will be unable to help. Insane or not this new dark Lord is extremely powerful." Arcturus promised and warned at the same time.

After that they continued to discuss how to invest the family money to come out of the fast approaching civil war as unscathed as possible. In the evening Regulus arrived 15 minutes before curfew back at Hogwarts, his stomach clenched and he had the uneasy feeling that this had been the last time he had talked to his father.

Four days later on Wednesday evening a regal looking owl landed in front of Sirius at the Gryffindor table. In its claws was a black letter, which insinuated a death in the family.  
Sirius left the table without having eaten anything and walked out of the Great Hall after he had inconspicuously taken the Marauder's map from James. Sirius had noticed right away that Regulus had been missing during dinner and while he had presumably cut all ties to his family he had always been aware where and with whom his younger brother was.  
Outside in the entrance hall he activated the Marauder's map and a quick glance revealed that his younger brother was at the North Tower, alone. Making his way there he still couldn't open the black letter even though he was pretty sure what it contained.

When he arrived at the North Tower Regulus sat on the wall and was gazing up at the cloud free night sky. Silently Sirius came to a halt beside his 15 year old brother before he let himself settle down beside him. Neither one of the two spoke while they watched their namesakes and those of their family members above them.

After a while Sirius heard how Regulus was swallowing in quick succession, a glance revealed that his brother was silently crying while he still sat unmoving with his face upturned. It surprised Sirius how strongly his brothers tears affected him. During their time growing up Regulus had rarely cried, to see him so vulnerable now stroke a chord with eldest Black son.  
Without another word he encircled Regulus shoulder with his arm and tugged him against his chest. At first Regulus slightly struggled against this before he relaxed and let himself be pulled even closer until they sat pressed against each other with Sirius' arm serving as silent comfort while they watched the stars.

Neither of them spoke that evening or ever mentioned out loud what had happened up there in the Tower, but both would secretly cherish this night. At this moment they had been simply brother's once more, both remembering their father without thinking about rivalries, alliances and secrets that normally stood between them. The memory of it would serve as a bitter sweet reminder in the next few live changing years of what they had lost and what could have been.


End file.
